Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array

Back in September when we had to change our travel planning. And the new route was going to take us down to New Mexico. I knew we had to make plans to visit the National Radio Astronomy Observatory site. Also called the "Very Large Array" (VLA).

If you have seen or remember the movie "Contact" with Jodi Foster. That movie was filmed on-location at the VLA. 

The VLA is located about 50 miles west of Socorro, NM off of US-60. The site has a total of 27 dish antennas. Each antenna is 82 feet in diameter, standing about 90 feet high, and it weights 230 tons.

They sit in a wide-open section/area of land around open farm land in this Y-shaped configuration when in it's maximum spacing it is 22 miles long. Which make the 27 antennas one of the single powerful telescopes in the world.

The scientists & staff at the VLA adjust or moved the antennas to change the science capabilities every four months. So they can see and observe items out in space day & night 365 days each year. And this all begin back in 1980. 

To move the dish antennas specially-trained employees board a special transporter unit to carefully lift and then relocate the 230-ton dish to one of 72 new positions along the Y-shaped railroad tracks. The array area has over 82 miles of railroad track at the site.

If you enjoy astronomy or outer space and are in this area of New Mexico. Then this is a must-see place to visit and explore.

For more information visit the VLA website : www.nrao.edu/index.php/learn/viave 

Very Large Array Visitor Center
Old Highway 60
Socorro, New Mexico

Images from the Past

Petroglyph at Boca Negra Canyon

On the outskirts of Albuquerque, just beyond a residential housing development, you can find messages left from an older civilization. Here in the high desert there are hundreds of petroglyphs left by ancestors of the native people that live here today.

This desert lizard is pretty easy to identify but why is it holding a paddle?

This land was formed by volcanic lava flows that have eroded over time. Five cinder cones dominate the landscape which is covered with boulders broken off from the lava caprock. The basalt boulders are covered in desert varnish, a thin dark coating of oxidized iron and other minerals deposited over time. This layer varies in color from orange to black and is only about 1 micrometer in depth..

Petroglyphs were created by chipping away that desert varnish layer to reveal the stone’s natural gray color. The work was done with primitive stone tools. Large areas of images were made by striking the boulder with a stone in a hammer-like manner. Finer lines and detailed portions of the petroglyph were made by using 2 stones similar to a hammer and chisel. It took planning,  time and patience to produce a lasting image.

There is a story here but I can't decipher it.

Some of the figures are easy to identify. Snakes, dragonflies and lizards appear frequently. Other images such as geometric designs are not so easy to interpret. Even the native people that consider this a sacred area are not sure of the meanings.

Archeologists have determined that some of the images may be as much as 3000 years old. Most were created between 400-700 years ago.

In addition to petroglyphs carved by native people you can see pictures of crosses and cattle brands that were left by Hispanic sheep and cattle herders.

There is evidence of vandalism here. Images have been scratched over and used for target practice. The petroglyphs have lasted a long time but they are fragile. Once damaged there is no way to restore them.

There were many perfect spirals pictured.

New Mexico created a State Park at Boca Negra Canyon to protect the images in the 1970’s. The Petroglyph area was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1986 and by 1990 Petroglyph National Monument was created.

We stopped at the Visitor Center to get an overview of the Monument, watched a short film and spoke for a while with the Ranger and volunteers that manned the information desk. The national park service area covers 17 miles of escarpment and the 5 volcanoes. There are 3 established trails that allow you access to the petroglyphs. We chose Boca Negra Canyon where a series of paved trails and one rustic uphill climb allowed us get up close to the images. Petroglyph National Monument has been high on my list of desired places to see since we started our journey and I wanted to get as close as possible to the images.

We climbed to the top of the escarpment first on a narrow steep path more suited to mountain goats than humans. There were petroglyphs on so many surfaces. We soon realized that most of them were on smooth vertical rocks facing South. Knowing where to look made them easier to spot.

The view from the top out over the city was pretty spectacular.

The high desert environment is still foreign to us. The sharp rocks and wide open spaces devoid of trees and shrubbery are a constant source of wonder. We are enjoying getting out into it every chance we get.

Petroglyph National Monument
Unser Blvd NW
Albuquerque, New Mexico

Longmire Country

Fort Union remnants of officers quarters

Las Vegas, New Mexico

October 25, 2017

Today we drove north to Las Vegas New Mexico to meet up with a member of my Facebook Group Awesome Breastforms. I have been a volunteer with the group for a little over 2 years but this was the first opportunity to meet one of my fellow volunteers in person. Jan suggested a coffee shop on the plaza in Las Vegas which was a great choice for us coffee hounds. We spent a wonderful hour or so visiting and getting to know one another in person.

Jan and I outside the yarn shop in Las Vegas

When Jan heard Fred talking about being a fan of the TV show Longmire she walked us down the block to the Sheriff’s Department door that is used for filming the series.

Fred at the Durant Sheriff's Department, in Las Vegas New Mexico.

Longmire is filmed in this part of New Mexico even though it is set in the fictional town of Durant, Wyoming. Jan gave us a few pointers for finding other film locales and we hugged and said our goodbyes before heading off to Fort Union for the afternoon.

Fort Union was established in 1851 and was active for 40 years although the fort itself was built 3 times. The National Monument that we visit today is the last of those established areas. The remnants of the fort cover a large area that included the military post of Fort Union and the Fort Union Quartermaster Depot side by side. Shipments arrived via the Santa Fe trail to be warehoused in Fort Union before distribution to other western forts.

Santa Fe Trail ruts

Today you can see the exterior walls of the adobe buildings connected by stone sidewalks and laid out in square blocks like a small city. Residential buildings surrounded the parade ground with the laundry, guardhouse and corrals behind them. Offices and storehouses formed another block and the hospital was separate.

Fort Union Jail

The hospital at Fort Union was considered the best on the western frontier. It’s 6 wards could care for up to 60 patients at a time. Military personal were treated at no cost, civilians paid 50 cents a day. The fort became obsolete by 1979 when the Santa Fe railroad reached Las Vegas and became the commerce route. It was abandoned by 1891.

Valles Caldera National Preserve
Bandolier National Monument

October 26, 2017

We left Santa Fe early to arrive at the Visitor Center at Valle Caldera by 10. This remote rustic preserve limits backcountry passes to 35/day and we didn’t want to be excluded. The drive was a little peculiar. We thought we had made a wrong turn when we came upon a security checkpoint and had to provide ID to drive through Los Alamos to get there. The views driving up the mountain were spectacular. The roads were narrow with tight switchback turns that made us glad we were driving the Jeep.

Valles Caldera

With our backcountry permit secured we drove into Longmire Country.

Valle Caldera is an amazing geologic formation. The preserve is a result of the eruption of a supervolcano 1.25 million years ago. It is a dormant volcanic caldera and remains an active geothermal area with evidence of hot springs and mud pots. The valley that was left when the domes lava flowed away is 13 miles in diameter. It a beautiful landscape of mountain meadows and small recurrent volcanic domes that is home to a large herd of elk. There is a tiny meadow stream that is prized for its brown trout. We saw several fly casters trying their luck in the gently flowing water. The grassland where the herd of elk graze used to be a ranch.

The ranch buildings have been maintained as part of the preserve.

Longmire House

One of those ranch houses is used to portray Walt Longmire’s home in the TV series. The open grassy areas you see in the background of so many of the Longmire episodes are located in the Valles Caldera National Preserve. Fred was in heaven. He walked up onto Walt’s porch and sat on the steps, then crossed the road to look at the old barn that appears in background in the TV series.

The back country permit allowed us access to 22 miles of pothole filled washboarded gravel roads. It was amazing to drive them seeing hillsides of volcanic ash and huge boulders of pumice and obsidian.

Hills of volcanic ash.

Driving the caldera was a great way to spend the morning, made even sweeter because it seemed so familiar.

Pumice boulders

The volcanic eruption that formed the Valle Caldera was also responsible for creation of the tuff that makes up the Pajarito Plateau and Frijoles Canyon. Tuff is the rock that is left when hot ash cools. Tuff is porous and soft.

It allowed Ancestral Pueblo People to carve into it with hand tools creating cavities in the rock face for shelter. Tuff was also carved into brick shapes used as building blocks for dwellings in front of the cliff face. Bandelier National Monument preserves some of these cliff dwellings that are located on the outer slope of the caldera. The cliff dwellings at Bandelier were occupied between the mid 1200’s to the 1500’s. It is amazing that concrete evidence of their occupation remains recognizable today.

Cliff dwelling

We enjoyed walking the Main Loop and Nature trails, climbing ladders to look into the tiny cavattes and spotting petroglyphs carved high on the rocks.

Window carved out of the tuff.

Petroglyphs. Art or ancient graffitti?

Those petroglyphs had us considering the graffiti and tagging of our era.

Were Ancestral Pueblo parents annoyed at the defacement of their homes or were the drawings considered art in their own time?

Were the drawings and carvings used to tell a story?

Are they a means of communication with future generations or the bored doodles of an idle teenager?

Bandelier National Monument does a great job of preserving these dwellings and the artifacts that have been found near them.

Bandolier National Monument
13 Entrance Rd
Los Alamos, New Mexico


Valles Caldera National Preserve
39201 Highway 4
Jemez Springs, New Mexico


Fort Union National Monument
3115 New mexico 161
Watrous, New Mexico

Bound for Santa Fe

Santuario de Guadalupe

October 21, 2017

Santa Fe, New Mexico

We have traveled north to Santa Fe. What a beautiful city. We can’t get enough of looking at the adobe architecture with its soft lines and earthy colors. Downtown Santa Fe is very walkable and has a great deal to offer. We started our day at the Railroad Station Farmers Market where we found a wide variety of fresh ingredients for our weeks cooking. My favorite vendors had chiles roasting in a rolling metal cage over blistering heat. They made the market smell so good. I was also impressed with the number of different dried beans and we were thrilled to find watermelon radishes for the first time since we left New York.

We stowed our lovely veggies in the Jeep and took a walking tour of historic Santa Fe.

This city is full of beautiful churches.

The first one we came to was Santuario de Guadalupe on  Guadalupe Street.  Established in the 1770’s on the banks of the Santa Fe River it is the oldest shrine in the United States. The beautiful adobe chapel is a museum that celebrates the  history of the New Mexican santos and houses the art collection of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.

Downtown Santa Fe La Fonda on the Plaza

We continued our journey to the historic downtown where we found the Plaza, the park at the center of Santa Fe. The Palace of the Governors forms one side of the Plaza and today being Saturday the Native American Market was busy with vendors of silver jewelry, pottery and wood carving. The market was doing a brisk business on this beautiful day.

we loved the adobe architecture.

The Palace of the Governors is adjacent to the New Mexico History Museum. Admission to the museum includes entrance to the palace itself. We enjoyed the museum and learning about New Mexico’s development as a tourist destination by Fred Harvey as the railroad moved west. Harvey’s hotels provided clean and comfortable accommodations and prided themselves on customer service. The hotels offered tours to the region’s cultural, geological and archeological sites making them attractions that drew tourists from all over the world.

We left the museum and continued along the Plaza passing the La Fonda Hotel with its famous bell tower.

Cathedral basilica of St Francis of Assisi

We came upon the Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi and around the corner Loretto Chapel and its miraculous staircase.  Spanish missionary influence is very apparent in Santa Fe.

We stopped for lunch at a lovely coffee shop and tired but happy walked back to the train station to pick up the Jeep.

October 22, 2017

Taos, New Mexico

Today we decided to take a drive up to Taos to see the Indian Pueblo that at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. We drove the high road enjoying expansive mountain views, tiny towns and beautiful adobe architecture.

Beautiful views of the Sangre de Cristo mountains from the High Road

Taos Pueblo is an active native American community that has been continuously inhabited for more than 1000 years.

Two of the large adobe houses date from that time. The adobe on the exterior is replenished as necessary and the interior walls are whitewashed with a naturally pigmented mixture. We learned that the buildings as originally built did not have doors or windows. The large ladders that are present on the pueblo buildings were used to access the dwelling through the roof. This design provided protection to the original inhabitants. Living in the pueblo means embracing a traditional way of life without the conveniences of electricity or running water. There are about 150 people that live full time in the community. Pueblo homes are owned by specific families who have passed them down for generations. Homes are heated with wood stoves or traditional adobe fireplaces. Water is collected from a stream that flows from Blue Lake which is on restricted native land.

Taos Pueblo

Many of the homes have shops and studios in them. We visited a bakery where Fred enjoyed his first experience of pinion coffee. Tourism and the trade of traditional crafts is the main source of income for the pueblo. We enjoyed seeing heavy silver and gemstone jewelry, drum and rattles made of hides and a unique shiny form of pottery made from micaceous clay.  

We enjoyed the tour given by a local high school senior who explained some of the culture of the pueblo. Members of the community are multilingual speaking a combination of English, Spanish and Tiwa, the native language.  

Taos Pueblo culture is thought to have originated with the Anasazi. There is evidence of Spanish and Anglo American influence in the history of the pueblo which is a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Santuario de Guadalupe

100 Guadalupe St.

Santa Fe, New Mexico

New Mexico History Museum and Palace of the Governors

113 Lincoln Ave

Santa Fe, New Mexico

La Fonda Hotel

100 East San Francisco St

Santa Fe, New Mexico

The Cathedral Basilica of St Francis of Assisi

131 Cathedral Pl

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Loretto Chapel

207 Old Santa Fe Trail

Santa Fe, New Mexico

Taos Pueblo

120 Veterans Highway

Taos, New Mexico