Bandelier National Monument

We have been in Santa Fe for a couple days, checking out the town and enjoyed a delicious lunch yesterday at The Shed. This morning we checked out the Railyard Farmers Market.  Our winning purchase was a “Hatch Chile Croissant”!  To our surprise it was so good!After the Farmers Market we headed to Bandelier National Monument about 35 miles from Santa Fe and is part of the Jemez Volcanic field. This monument dates back more than 10,000 years.  Native Americans moved in and out of this area following movement of game animals.  Bandelier National Monument consists of ruins of above…

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Elephant Butte Lake State Park

We stayed at Elephant Butte Lake State Park for several days.  This state Park is located in South Central New Mexico in the town of Elephant Butte.  The water levels are down to just 3% capacity according to the Las Cruces News. This resevior is part of the Rio Grande Project, to supply power and irrigation to Southern New Mexico and Western Texas.  When built in 1916 it was the largest man-made lake in the world!  Over the past few decades, southwestern states like New Mexico have on average experienced warmer temperatures, earlier springs and less snowpack in the mountains.  There…

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Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge

We spent an overnight near this wildlife refuge. The Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge is located in southern New Mexico. It was founded in 1939 and is administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It is a favorite spot to watch the migration of the Sandhill Cranes in the fall.  Although we were not there to witness the Sandhill Crane migration we did see a variety of wildlife!We saw a plethora of Turkeys, Javelina, many types of Ducks, Blue Heron and Cranes.  Up to this point we had only seen Javelinas in captivity...so this was amazing to see…

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