Photo Blog with Waterfalls, Hiking, Outdoors, and other Adventures
The final destination for me completing my visit at Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument was at the Quarai site, located just 10 minutes north of Mountainair, New Mexico on NM-55 in the small unincorporated community of Punta de Agua. The visitor center / museum is currently closed for remodeling. This is a smaller site and … Read more
Two more sites to visit for Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument and both are a bit more remote. The next closest is a 30-minute drive south from Mountainair on rural State Road 55 (aka NM-55) to reach the Gran Quivira Unit. Again, the visitor center is closed today but that’s expected since it’s Monday in … Read more
From Abó the drive to the quiet town of Mountainar, New Mexico is just a few minutes on US-60. Make sure to get fuel if you can before heading out to this remote area, you’ll pay a premium at the local station if you forget. In a town of about 900 residents it’s fairly hard … Read more
Starting my return home now after enjoying a week with my family. I decided to head north and visit a few sites I didn’t have time for on the outbound trip. First stop was at Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument in Abó, New Mexico. This national monument consists of three separate locations with remnants of … Read more
Continuing from the Headland Trail you’ll naturally connect to the Inscription Rock Trail that leads along the bluff and observes the other significant focus of the monument – several ancient petroglyphs and hundreds of historic rock inscriptions. A careful eye will notice several petroglyphs on the large vertical faces of the cliff where big circular … Read more
El Morro National Monument has two trails that end up connecting at the end. I started with the longer Headland Trail first for no reason other than…well, it’s the first sign I saw and just decided to go that way. The trail begins right from the back door of the visitor center. A short paved … Read more
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
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
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