Jemez Get-away

Stan and I decided we wanted to go on a hike without our cute kids. Nothing against them, but they are heavier than not having any child on your back. :) We have a wonderful, good friend that said she would take the boys overnight!! So we booked a little room near our hike spot and dropped them off on Friday evening.

We got Dion's pizza for the road and Cheesecake Factory cheesecake for dessert and headed off to Jemez Springs. We checked in and then went for a little hike. Our goal was to get to some ruins just on the other side of the river but a high muddy river thwarted our plan! We ended up just walking down the river, hoping to get across at some point. It was very jungle-y all along and at times I felt like I was somewhere tropical :) It was so fun to just walk and talk...without interruption :)

Beautiful sunset.

My love and me

Checking out the river.

The river

We passed this large friend.

We changed our plans first thing in the morning and decided to attempt a hike to a ruin that we knew we would probably not want to do with children :) It was about a ten miler. We passed this ruin previously but had since learned that we were allowed to get a little closer than we had thought. We wanted to get a better look at it and boy were we glad we did! Just like the night before, it was so fun to walk and talk and enjoy each others' company. Since we had changed our plans, we had just brought the Corolla. The road to our hiking spot wasn't too bad but we did regret our decision later when we hit a bump just wrong and tapped our muffler so that it got a hole in it. :( But the rest of the day was AWESOME!

As we left Jemez Springs, the clouds and sunrise were so neat! It was a gorgeous morning.

This is a huge meadow called Valle Grande, the clouds were nestled down

On the road to our hiking spot...

we were driving along a mountain top range, and it was beautiful.

I love when Stan drives and he is a little nervous, he always sticks out his tongue, and it is so cute!

Off in the distance are the Sandias.

Bright and bushy tailed! Sleeping without baby interruptions is sure relaxing!

This forest was burned most recently in about 2011 and so most of the hike was exposed to the beautiful sun. I didn't mind one bit.

This is one of the rocks we passed on the trail. It was a huge wall that looked like cement. So random and interesting.

I LOVE SUNFLOWERS!!! And there was this perfect beautiful patch of them.

Stan making sure we are headed the right way.

First sign of a ruin. This HUGE potsherd.

Having seen the first one, we are stepping lightly and looking closely. But there were SOOOO many, we didn't have to look too close.

And lots of chippings too.

And then Stan found the neatest find! This arrow head. It had jagged sides and was so amazing! (We left it there of course)

A metate

someone had gathered some pottery together.

And more.

Some of the ruins.

I'm curious to know if they just lifted the rock together or had some kind of "machinery" set up to move the heavy rock.

Corner of a room

More gathered pottery. This one looks like it had a face on it.

A happy man to find such a neat find :)

We enjoyed our sack lunch at a great view and then headed out.

We found this beautiful (but dead) butterfly

As we were hiking back, we noticed this built up wall way up hidden against the mountain. We went to check it out and there had definitely been someone living there. It had a bunch of old (like mining era) tins lying around. Would be cool to know who and why :)

Right next to the cave was this row of metates. Sure was neat.

....just down this mountain and up that one...I can do this :)

And my handsome driver on the way home :)

The boys didn't seem to miss us too much. I don't know whether to feel fine or bad about that :) We had a wonderful time though! So grateful for good friends!!