Colorado Plateau (New Mexico to Colorado)

The sculptured beauty and brilliant colors of the Colorado Plateau's sedimentary rock layers have captured the imaginations of countless geologists. This is a vast region of plateaus, mesas, and deep canyons whose walls expose rocks ranging in age from billions to just a few hundred years old.

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

This is a spectacular drive through the Colorado Plateau

Snow-capped mountains ahead of me

The rock formations remind me a lot of the Badlands of South Dakota

The picture doesn't do it justice.  You can see purple, red

green, and all shades of brown in the rock formations

A horse on the side of the road eating lunch

I finally left New Mexico . . .

. . . and entered Colorado

This row of houses were on one street in Durango, Colorado.

Each house was cuter than the next.  They were in the historic district

My favorite!!

This was the historic downtown Durango area

Nice, quiet, tidy little town



Tucumcari, New Mexico

This is a great little town I passed through in New Mexico.  There were many historic buildings that were beautiful.  What I liked so much about Tucumcari was that artists have painted murals on the walls of many of the buildings; each one was better than the next.

(Click on photos to enlarge.)

MURALS 

An interesting building!

 Lots of old-style motels.

 This old-style motel (pics above and below) was really pretty.  It was extremely well-kept and each room had a little carport next  to it.  The carports all had murals painted in them.

Historic downtown area 

This was a beautiful Veterans' Park - Honoring vets from all wars.



Bandelier National Monument (near Santa Fe, NM)

Today I visited Bandelier National Monument just outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico.  Bandelier has some of the best preserved ruins I have seen.   

 (Click on photos to enlarge.)

The area is beautiful and peaceful.

After seeing the ruins, you can walk on a nature

trail that has a variety of plants and animals.

This was something very interesting.

This animal jumped past me - it looked like

a common squirrel, but hopped like a rabbit.

And, it appears that it has ANTLERS!

It was a freakly little thing!

Life in Bandelier
The Ancestral Pueblo people lived here from approximately 1150 CE to 1550 CE. They built homes carved from the volcanic tuff and planted crops in mesatop fields. Corn, beans, and squash were central to their diet, supplemented by native plants and meat from deer, rabbit, and squirrel. Domesticated turkeys were used for both their feathers and meat while dogs assisted in hunting and provided companionship. 
Moving On
By 1550, the Ancestral Pueblo people had moved from this area to pueblos along the Rio Grande.  After over 400 years the land here could no longer support the people and a severe drought added to what were already becoming difficult times.

THE RUINS

You could climb up the ladders and take a look inside.

If you look closely, you can see many different petroglyphs on this wall.

I think this looks like an elephant!

A turkey

A  sweet little red robin