Exploring Our Way to Pagosa Springs: Day Three

The trip from Santa Fe to Pagosa Springs should have taken a little less than three hours, but we managed to stretch it into a 10-hour trip! Don't worry! We didn't have any problems; we just took our time and saw lots of things on the way. We really like to get off the beaten path and explore!

First we headed to Los Alamos, thinking it would be cool to visit the "secret city" where the atom bomb was developed during WW II. On the way to Los Alamos, we took a side trip to White Rock and Bandelier National Monument. White Rock is a small a town, but they have a city park with a great view from an overlook point.

Here is the view we saw from the White Rock Overlook:

We tried to take this road into Los Alamos, but according to the sign, we could not enter this way.

Bandelier was mostly closed due to recent fires, which burned 50% of the park, but we were able to drive around in part of the park. We could have hiked, but the temperature was climbing into the 90's, so I was not really interested in hiking. We also had lots of other things to see before getting to Pagosa Springs.

After driving to Bandelier National Monument, we took a different route into Los Alamos. I didn't take any photos in Los Alamos, but took these few on the way into town.

At Los Alamos, we went to the Science Museum. It was free, and it was in this museum that they told the history of Los Alamos and the Manhattan Project. It was pretty interesting, and we viewed a short video about how the "secret city" of Los Alamos was created where there had only been a Boy's Ranch. The ranch was taken over by the government for the war effort, and more buildings were built for the many scientists and their families who moved here in the 1940's. It was all very secretive, and the people living here just had a Post Office Box number in Santa Fe. In fact, babies who were born there had the P.O. Box number on their birth certificate instead of a city. After eating lunch at a Subway, we got back on the road, headed toward Pagosa Springs, but it would still be many hours before we arrived there.

Next, we drove into the Rio Grande Gorge Recreation Area with the intention of driving to Taos, but decided we'd rather take in more scenery along the Rio Grande and skip Taos, since we didn't have time for both.

Finally we arrived at the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge.

Once we left the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge, we drove on to Pagosa Springs as quickly as we could, arriving at our condo around 6:30 PM. We checked in, carried our things into the condo, ate a bite of supper, and then went to get groceries. It was a very full, but rewarding day!