Photo Blog with Waterfalls, Hiking, Outdoors, and other Adventures
It’s the midpoint of October today and back home in the midwest I’d likely be seeing cooler temperatures and often gray cloudy skies. Happily I’m here in the far southwest high desert and it’s a near perfect mid 70’s day with partially clouded blue skies. I continued from Fort Wingate back west on I-40 through … Read more
Heading west from Grants, New Mexico on I-40 and absolutely loving the scenery as the sun fades on the day. Huge red sandstone cliffs are to the north of the interstate and I didn’t know at the time but this is the southern terminus of the Colorado Plateau. Most of this area is also Navajo … Read more
Made it to Grants, New Mexico and stopped for fuel. Didn’t have anything planned in this area so I took a survey of the map and found an interesting feature relatively nearby. Headed south on NM-117 into El Mapais National Monument / National Conservation Area and checked out the La Ventana Natural Arch, the second … Read more
After leaving Jemez Falls I continued south on NM-4 through the Jemez and Zia Pueblos just enjoying the scenery (though now that I’m back home I realized I missed so many things). Decided to head into Albuquerque and check out Petroglyph National Monument which has been on my list for quite some time and I’ve … Read more
Camp was quiet and nearly cleared out on this mid-October Monday morning, and my feet are losing their soreness so it’s time to try another short hike. As far as short hikes go this one has a great payoff at Jemez Falls, the highest waterfall in the Jemez Mountains. The trailhead is very easy to … Read more
Camp for tonight is at the Jemez Falls campground in the Jemez National Recreation Area. This is part of the Santa Fe National Forest in the Jemez Mountains, and borders on the Valles Caldera National Preserve. Being a Sunday night, camp is only about half full (if that). According to the posted signs there might … Read more
Leaving Bandelier National Monument it was again decision time. I wasn’t quite ready to give up my exploration of this part of New Mexico so I drove further west on NM-4 through the mountain pass near Los Alamos with some idea of camping in the Santa Fe National Forest. Along the way I came across … Read more
![Bandelier National Monument - Visitor Center [Failed]](https://i0.wp.com/adammartin.space/wp-content/uploads/20241013-BandelierNM-01.jpg?fit=1600%2C900&ssl=1)
Attempt to explore Bandelier National Monument was a failure today because I lost track of time while enjoying the scenic drive coming from Rio Grande Gorge. The area through La Junta was especially beautiful as was the Santa Clara Pueblo. The huge miscalculation that I made was how long it takes to drive from downtown … Read more
The Rio Grande Gorge and bridge were more impressive than I imagined. I was almost completely unprepared for this leg of the journey, so next destination was the Rio Grande Gorge Visitor Center to get more information. The first large sign on the outer wall of the visitor center details how the Rio Grande starts … Read more
The scenic byway along US-64 south of Wheeler Peak was a great drive, and Taos is an interesting town but due to all the road work it wasn’t ideal to stop and walk around. So I kept driving a bit further northwest to the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge. There is a parking area but it … Read more