Day 6: White Rock to Abiquiu

September 17, 2017

I departed White Rock intentionally late at 8:50, hoping to miss the White Rock to Los Alamos commuter traffic. But the traffic was still heavy and NM4 has no shoulder. The miles went by quickly, downhill with a tailwind.

The end of NM 4 is visible ahead. I pedaled the highway end to end.

Just before NM 4 dead-ends into NM 202 I turned right into the Tsankawi Ruins unit of Bandelier National Monument. It has a self-pay station, no staff. Small parking lot and toilet building. And a 1.5 mile loop trail to the ruins.

On the way to the ruins the trail stays on the top of a plateau. High and dry, but there were piles of stones in a few places. The trail on the plateau is easy to hike. But half of the loop is on stone paths created by the ancient cave dwellers. The ancient trail is 10 inch wide level footpaths built into the sloping volcanic tuff. The tuff is soft and easy to dig. Centuries of footsteps have worn the paths below the level of the surrounding rock. Usually 4-6 inches. But sometimes 3 feet!

One of the more challenging sections of the hiking trail at Tsankawi Ruins. Above the ladder a difficult scramble is required.

The cave dwellings and paths were built in the 1400's and inhabited until the late 1500's. Natural caves and overhangs were expanded by hacking away the soft tufa.

The paths at Tsankawi ruins are eroded from centuries of footsteps.

This community was built by the Tewa people, ancestors of Santa Clara and San Ildefonso pueblos. This community was surely much smaller than the ancient city I saw two days ago in the main part of Bandelier National Monument. Here there are no post holes in the walls. No indication that large structures were built outside the caves.

The Tsankawi ruins seem to be mostly caves. Few post holes in the cliffs for add-on structures.

The ancient staircases are hard to miss. The typical staircase had 1.5 foot high steps. And the Pueblo people were probably only 5 feet tall.

There are many stairways in the cliffs, with very tall steps.

In some places the footpaths are eroded 3 feet deep into the tuff. Only 10 inches wide.

These caves seem to be an inconvenient place to live because water is very far below. Maybe in 1300 there was a spring on the plateau. Maybe the caves were abandoned when the spring went dry.

Water is inconveniently far away from the cave dwellings.

I sat for a few minutes in two of the caves and pondered what it would be like to live there. 600 years ago it was somebody's house.

I really enjoyed the visit to Tsankawi ruins. It was a rewarding and moderately challenging off-road adventure. I managed to not get hurt on the trail.

After leaving Tsankawi ruins I immediately turned right onto NM 202, a busy 4 lane highway. It's the main connection to Los Alamos but I'm going away from Los Alamos. Fortunately it has a paved shoulder and is downhill for 3 miles to the NM 30 exit.

4-lane NM 202 is the main highway connection to Los Alamos.

The San Ildefonso reservation is 4.2 square miles with 524 inhabitants. They speak the Tewa language. The tribe is famous for a distinctive black on black style of pottery. They are reclusive and closely adhere to native traditions.

NM 30 is a pleasant road for cycling. It goes north through an unpopulated section of the San Ildefonso reservation. No shoulder, but no traffic. All the traffic goes south towards Santa Fe and I-25.

I passed the turnoff for the Puye Cliff dwellings. It's a National Historic Landmark run by the National Park Service. It has even bigger cliff dwellings than what I saw at Bandelier National Monument. I would love to go there but it's a 14 mile round trip with 1150 feet of climbing. If I was younger, or I planned more carefully, or I had a car...

Looking up at the Pajarito plateau. The Puye cliff dwellings are in this area.

I saw one small settlement in the San Ildefonso reservation just before crossing into the Santa Clara reservation. It looks quite nice.

Small pueblo in the San Ildefonso reservation.

The Santa Clara reservation is much more populated. The tribe has 980 members but 3800 people live on the 2.1 square mile reservation. They speak the Tewa language.

Santa Clara pueblo was founded in the 14th century after the Puye cliff dwellings were abandoned.

NM 30 passes alongside the main Santa Clara pueblo which does not look very prosperous. Santa Clara pueblo is on the edge of the city of Española. It's hard to write nice things about Española, the dreariest town I saw during this tour. It has 10,000 people but is run down and has very few businesses. The central plaza is not very attractive. Hardly anything in town is attractive.

Dreary plaza in dreary Española. At least it has a Blake's Lotaburger.

The best thing about Española was my initiation to Blake's Lotaburger. I had a green chile cheeseburger. Blake's Lotaburger is a small burger chain that prominently features green chiles. Based in New Mexico and they refuse to expand outside New Mexico. They buy local and control the distribution for everything except the bread. They have a cult-like following similar to Whataburger in Texas.

Española (pronounced es-pan-YO-la) is the most Indian city I've ever seen. Surrounded by Indian pueblos. The city was founded by the Spanish more than 400 years ago. As a result, the surrounding pueblos adopted some of the Hispanic culture.

North of Española I enter the Ohkay Owingeh reservation. The name means "place of the strong people". The pueblo was founded in about 1200. The tribe has 3357 members but the pueblo has a population of 6748 in less than 4 square miles. Ohkay Owingeh is the largest of the Tewa-speaking pueblo tribes. They own a small casino and a crafts cooperative.

Ohkay Owingeh pueblo was previously known as San Juan pueblo but reverted to their pre-Spanish name in 2005.

Ohkey Owingeh is the end of El Camino Real de Tierra Adentro, the 1600 mile (2560 km) Spanish royal road from Mexico City to Ohkay Owingeh. North of here the Rio Grande valley narrows to an impassible canyon.

This wasn't the end of the road for very long. In the early 1800's the Spanish built Old Spanish Trail which went west to Los Angeles. And at about the same time they built the Santa Fe Trail which went northeast to the United States.

In Española NM 30 connects to US 285 which goes northwest away from the Rio Grande, and up the tributary stream Rio Chama. The Chama river valley seems to be mostly white-owned land. It has a very different development pattern than the pueblos. The white people all want a ranch house on several acres of land. Houses are spread out as much as possible. The Indians cluster houses as close together as possible to form a cohesive community.

10 miles north of Española is a major highway split. US 285 goes northeast, climbing away from the river. I go northwest on US 84, staying close to the Chama river. There is no shoulder after the split. Fortunately traffic is light.

I was pleased to finally be on a highway close to a river. The Rio Grande has such big floods that it's not possible to have a highway close to the river.

Today had pretty much perfect weather. High of 85F/29C, mostly sunny, with a gentle tailwind.

2.5 miles south of Abiquiu I stopped to take a photo of the P'oshuouing'e ruins. It's buried now but was once a city built by the Tewa people. Believed to be occupied from 1375 to 1475. It had 700 ground level rooms and most structures were 2 or 3 stories. Adolf Bandelier was the first anthropologist to excavate the ruins in 1885. Excavated areas were filled afterwards to prevent further disturbance or looting. There are no visible ruins so I didn't do the hiking trail.

Buried ruins of an ancient Tewa pueblo built by ancestors of today's Santa Clara and Ohkay Owingeh pueblos. It had 700 ground floor rooms.

In Abiquiu I checked in to the Abiquiu Inn at 3:30, then immediately continued half a mile into town and turned left up a steep hill to see Abiquiu pueblo. It belongs to an Indian tribe but is mostly abandoned now.

The pueblo was built in the 1700's on the site of an ancient Tewa pueblo that was inhabited from about 1200 to 1500. The region was heavily influenced by the Spanish during the 1700's. Indian children were captured, raised in servitude, and indoctrinated with Hispanic culture. They spoke Spanish, became Christians, and were given Spanish names. The de-tribalized Hispanic Indians are called Genízaros.

Santo Tomas el Apostal church in Abiquiu pueblo. Rebuilt in 1935 after a fire.

The centerpiece of Abiquiu pueblo is the church. The original church was built in the 1770's but was destroyed by fire and rebuilt in 1935. I suspect the new church is nearly identical to the original church.

Most of Abiquiu pueblo is abandoned buildings and ruins of buildings. There isn't much to see in Abiquiu.

The sky became cloudy about the time I arrived in Abiquiu. By 4 PM the temperature had dropped to 72F/22C and there were a few sprinkles. But no thunder and lightning.

Most of the buildings surrounding the Pueblo plaza are vacant or in ruins.

Just outside the pueblo at the top of a cliff is painter Georgia O'Keeffe's house/studio. To see inside the house you have to book a guided tour in advance. Georgia O'Keeffe's colorful abstract paintings of landscapes and organic shapes have made tiny Abiquiu a must-see destination for connoisseurs of Southwest landscapes.

Georgia O'Keeffe's house. I did not arrive early enough to book a guided tour.

After exploring Abiquiu I backtracked half a mile to Abiquiu Inn and explored their large property. Tours of Georgia O'Keefe's house start here. A Georgia O'Keeffe museum is under construction. They have fancy casitas and "simple" lodge rooms like my $156 room which has an adobe fireplace. I expected the lodge to have river access but the Chama river is not nearby.

I had dinner at the gourmet restaurant in Abiquiu Inn, the only restaurant in town. The only store is half a mile away near the pueblo. Abiquiu has only 231 residents. The only other lodging is a B&B a mile south of Abiquiu Inn. It's farther from the restaurant, store, and pueblo but closer to the river.

Today was short and flat enough that I probably could have detoured to the Puye Cliff Dwellings. That wasn't in my plan, so I didn't budget enough time for the long detour.

The bed bug bites are still huge red lumps that itch like crazy but they are no worse than last night. They aren't oozing pus because I didn't scratch very much. I took another Benadryl before bed and had another miserable night. The bites mostly itch when I'm sitting still. They don't itch much when I'm exercising.

Distance: 44.3 mi. (70.9 km)
Ascent/Descent: +1238/-1657 ft. (+375/-502 m)
Average Speed: 10.6 mph (17 km/h)
Hiking: 1.5 mi. (2.4 km)

Today's ride: 44 miles (71 km)
Total: 192 miles (309 km)

Rate this entry's writing	Heart	1
Comment on this entry	Comment	0