Weather is beautiful but chilly at 8:30 a.m. The weather report said there wa 40% chance of rain though. We decided to ride the Jemez Mountain Trail (pronounced HAY-mez) to Bandelier National Monument. What a beautiful ride. The Jemez Mountain Trail takes you past amazing geological formations, ancient Indian ruins, an Indian pueblo, and the remainders of the area's logging, mining and ranching heritage.
On the Jemez Mountain Trail, we stopped to see Soda Dam. A very deep fault at Soda Dam (roughly perpendicular to the highway) serves as a conduit to bring water to the surface. Because of deep faults in the area, surface waters are able to penetrate deep enough to be heated by the earth itself, which is in turn heated by the molten rock underlying the area. Heated and pressurized water carries gases and minerals in a dissolved form to the surface, just like "hard water deposits" in a home faucet.
Soda Dam forms a natural dam to the Jemez River, which cuts through it to continue its course. The unique formation shows the continuous processes of nature both building and destroying the feature at the same time.
Also along Rt 4 on the Jemez Mountain Trail was another photo op - Battleship Rock.
On to Bandelier National Monument. Bandelier has a long human history and links to the modern Pueblos. Traditions which began in the distant past are still practiced today. At Bandelier, evidence of the Ancestral Pueblo people can be found in the dwellings, artifacts, and continuing culture of the modern pueblos. We walked the 1.2 mile trail and visited the Alcove House with its 140 foot ascent on 4 wooden ladders and many stone stairs.
On the way back we saw rain clouds, dark rain clouds. Louie heard that 1/2 inch hail was in the town of Madrid so we decided not to travel the Turquoise Trail which would go through Madrid. We'll do that tomorrow. We took I-25 back to the campground. We dodged another rain bullet. More tomorrow.
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