Bountiful Bandelier National Monument
Offbeat New Mexico
It had been awhile since my last trip to Bandelier and lately I'd been hearing people talk about it quite a bit. With a holiday weekend coming up I decided to take a day off and head up to the Monument. Bandelier National Monument is the official designation and it includes about 23,000 acres of wilderness within its total 32,737 acre range. With 70 miles of backcountry trails, you can hike for weeks. But I didn't have weeks, so I thought about how best to spend this day.
Making the Trip
You can get to the park from Santa Fe, but my trip was starting in Albuquerque so I decided to take the scenic route through the Jemez River valley. Sixteen miles from the intersection of I-4 and I-25 in Albuquerque you make a left turn onto highway 550 through the town of Bernalillo then drive about 24 miles and make a right turn at San Ysidro onto Highway 4, one of the prettiest drives in New Mexico.
If you have time there's a winery about 6 miles from the intersection, right before you enter Jemez Pueblo. If the winery is closed your first rest stop should be the Pueblo. Chances are you'll see a sign for somebody selling Indian Bread. Stop! Buy the bread and if you were smart enough to buy a bottle of wine from the winery, your picnic lunch is pretty well set. While you're in Jemez you might just want to make another stop and look at some of the finest Indian pottery in the Southwest. There are a number of internationally known, award winning potters in Jemez. But this trip is meant to get you to Bandelier, so just make a quick stop or two, the potters houses will have signs out front, look at the pottery, buy a piece or two if you see something you like and then keep driving north.
After you pass through the main village you'll come to an area of beautiful red rock cliffs. Across the road, on your left, is the Walatowa visitor center for the Pueblo. Make a quick stop here, or at least make a mental note to stop here another time. It's a good place to learn more about the Jemez Pueblo people. Beyond the Pueblo you will find yourself in a National Recreation Area. If you brought your fly rod along you may discover that Bandelier is too far away to make it in one day! The fishing is great along this stretch of the road and the scenery gets nicer by the mile.
About ten miles north of the Pueblo is the cozy little community of Jemez Springs. If you ignored my suggestions about the wine and bread, this is a great place for lunch. But, if you brought your picnic along, drive on north of town for a mile or so and, after passing the Jemez State Monument, you will find a bunch of cars parked alongside the road. They've all stopped to look at, walk on and around, take photos of and just generally enjoy Soda Dam. I'll leave this as a pleasant little surprise for you, but it would be an interesting place to have your bread and wine. But not too much wine because you've got a way to go yet to get to Bandelier. And, if you can't eat all the bread, save it for the best French Toast you've ever made. Slice it almost two inches thick, soak it in egg beaten with vanilla in the refrigerator overnight and bake it your oven till done. Serve with some black raspberry jam and powdered sugar and you'll come back to New Mexico just to buy Indian bread!
