Sleep in! But it seems we don't need that much sleep at the moment, because we were awake 6.30 a.m. today...
So we checked the motel breakfast, toast with butter and jelly, freshly baked waffles, OK besides the coffee.
Now packing our bags into the car, and on we went for the next part of our trip.
First we visited Cochiti Lake, retained by a huge dam, one of the 10 biggest of its kind worldwide. On a short hike we had beautiful vistas onto the dam and the lake. Even small creatures were spotted, so a neat rabbit crossed our way, and several lizards enjoyed the sun.
Our drive went further across amazing sceneries to Bandelier National Monument. For the time being this can only be reached by shuttle buses, because the big 2011 Los Alamos fire destroyed two thirds of the park's nature, and the following rainstorms compounded the situation. That way the rangers want to protect the park until the flora has recovered. But even without a car we could enter the park and explore it by foot. The hike led us to ruins of the pueblo Indians, well preserved and well worth seeing.
Lucky that we had plenty of water with us, because that's necessary at temperatures around 100°F and glowing sunshine...
Nearby is the well-known city of Los Alamos, known by the Los Alamos National Laboraty, which amongst others gained notoriety by the Manhattan Project - but even a lot of really progressive research projects were and are worked on here.
At late afternoon we arrived in Santa Fe. The motel was found quite fast, as well as a restaurant for dinner. At Village Inn we had tasty American food, and we had an easy evening afterwards at the motel.
