We got up fairly early and headed to the tourist area of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The area is lovely. There is lots of statuary, which is always good for me.
There is a little park and green space that's cute.
Many carvers/sculptors have shops in the area.
I love the benches with children reading.
The adobe architecture is all over the tourist area and kind of spattered around the rest of town.
The big draw for me was in the Loretto Chapel. This church was decommissioned long ago, but if you pay your admission fee of $5 per person, you can still buy and light prayer candles inside. The confessional is just for show, though.
The draw is this staircase. It's called the Miraculous Staircase and there are significant mysteries surrounding it. The most well known is that it is a spiral staircase with two complete spirals and no nails or other visible means of support. There are also questions about the woods used and who built it. Legend says that after the church was built, the only access to the second-floor choir loft was by ladder. After prayers and purchasing sacraments to St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters, a man appeared with a donkey and tools and built the staircase. After completion, the man disappeared and could not be found to be paid, even after placing ads in the local paper. Regardless of the truthfulness of the legends, it's a very lovely staircase.
This is a picture of a picture of a choir actually using the staircase.
After finishing in the chapel, we headed on down the road to the west. Our next stop was Chaco Canyon and the Chaco Culture National Historic Park. You will not stumble onto this place by accident! It is waaaaaay back into the canyon!
Soon after turning onto the numbered country road, the welcoming committee came out to see us.
Bruce was under the mistaken impression that I stopped putting him on dirt roads when we left South America. Oh, how wrong he was! It didn't take long before we left the county maintenance area.
We passed by the Horse Thief Campground. We initially thought it just said, "Welcome Horse Thieves"!
And we crossed a huge wash. Apparently, you can't get into or out of the park when it storms.
We saw more wildlife as we drove on by. Bruce and I joked that it probably wouldn't take long for me to make friends with much of these wild animals!
We finally got to the park and paved roads! This picture is of a formation in the canyon, but you can see the pavement on the edge!
The visitor's center had an awesome map with a relief of the canyon.
The park is dedicated to the Chaco culture, the ancient culture that is believed to be ancestral to most if not all of the local Native cultures. These are believed to be the First Nation. They apparently had a very well defined and complex area. Trade is known to have occured as far as central Mexico. The buildings that have been excavated were huge. The site we toured is the largest one and the best preserved. Back in the 800-1100s, this was one of the larges great houses. It was at least 4 stories and had over 600 rooms plus 40 kivas (a circular men's ceremonial room). Kivas are still used by the Hopi. This was a massive site.
This is a Kiva
On the way out, we were bid a fond farewell. I know we could be friends if I spent more time in the area!
With the sweetest of goodbyes, we headed on up to Farmington, NM, for the night.
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