Day forty nIne, Santa Fe to Los Alamos

After spending a night in the very cool New Mexico town of Santa Fe and having a very. Nice dinner out up in the Plaza, we got on the bikes for the very short days ride of 59 kms to ride up to Los Alamos. Couple reasons for such a short day. Originally we had planned a two night stay in Santa Fe, being Sunday night and Monday night so we could get the bikes serviced and new tires at the BMW/Triumph dealership in Santa Fe. Earlier emails however revealed they were closed on Mondays, which is why we had the work done a week or so earlier in New Orleans.

Secondly, there is some cool stuff to see in Los Alamos, so rather than two nights in Santa Fe, we did the short ride to Los Alamos instead. The day we rode in, we took Mark and Tracey for the ride up the Mountain to see the Valles Caldera, in my mind one of New Mexico’s must see attractions. basically a massive volcanic crater formed a million years ago by a series of eruptions and now a huge grass prairie. Also the ride up there from Los Alamos is a very cool ride.

This is the third time Marie and I have been up to the Valles Caldera area, it is such a scenic part of NM and the native vegetation up here is massive Ponderosa Pine forests which are a treasure to the eye for sure. Up in Valle Grande the forests are still in good nick, so have posted a couple pics to show you, but sadly the forests on the hillsides beside the awesome twisties climb up the mountain from Los Alamos has been devastated by fire sometime since we were here last in 2016, but has started regenerating already so all good.

Also on the agenda was the Bradbury Science Museum, rated as a top attraction if you are interested in the nuclear discoveries and history involved in the “ atomic city “ as many businesses in the town use to market the town!!!!!!Murphys law again,

Also we wanted to take the troops down to the Bandelier National Monument which is good to see from a history and archaeology point of view. Not big miles in terms of riding, but lots to see and a gorgeous part of the world.