Postponed

It’s nice to get back to Philmont (home) before dark for once. That wasn’t initially the plan though.

At about 1 am this morning I decided I wasn’t going to do the central Colorado trip because of a 60% forecast of 1-2inches of snow and I just couldn’t fall asleep. That’s enough of a hint for now. Let’s get on with what I was up to today.

With no real plan I woke up at 7am and was in my car by 7:45am. I was off to Los Alamos, New Mexico first to see the Manhattan Site National Historic Park (part 2). You see, there are 3 different sites that make up this park. I saw the one in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. At that site they made the uranium for the first atom bomb. In Hanford, Washington they made the Plutonium for the second atom bomb. At Los Alamos they tested the plutonium and built the uranium one.

The drive there was monotonous. Cimarron to Taos was going pretty well until 1000ft from my exit. There was a somewhat bad car crash that shut down both lanes for almost 45 minutes. The emergency crews did a fine job of cleaning up fast and just after 10am I was on my way again. Taos to Española is a really scenic drive, but about half of it is 40mph construction zones. We are talking 30 mile stretches of 40mph double fines here. Basically that just meant I had to be extra careful. The other part of the drive is a “safety corridor”, which means a construction zone without construction. (double fines, lights on, low speed limits, looooooong scenic parts…) It took about 3 hours to reach Los Alamos from Philmont.

Los Alamos is a really nice city! I love the modern-ish pueblo type architecture. The Manhattan Site here is pretty similar to the one in Tennessee minus the uranium enrichment buildings. Basically the government came in, moved everyone out, built the bombs, disassembled stuff after the war and rebuilt the town like nothing happened. The only thing left behind is the Los Alamos National Lab. It is a national security laboratory and currently is the largest employer in northern New Mexico.

One other neat thing about this site was the Fuller Lodge nearby that used to be a really prestigious school / Boy Scout camp. It was called the Los Alamos Ranch School and would cost about $30k in today’s currency. The boys there had to wear their scout uniforms 365 days a year, care for their own horse, and were expected to graduate as an Eagle Scout as well as finish all the school courses. Wew! Back when it was built it was used as a dining hall and staff quarters for the camp, but when the U.S. Government bought it, it was turned into basically a free hotel and event center for the scientists working on the Manhattan Project.

After breaking the cash register at the Los Alamos History Museum I was got hungry so I went to McDonalds for a quick lunch. (When I tapped my credit card and then immediately used the chip, the Square cash register got confused and refused to work for about 30 minutes.) Sorry! :/

The only other thing to do was to get the Bandelier National Monument stamp in my national passport book then head to Philmont. Lately Bandelier has been closed due to wildfires, but recently it reopened so I hopped on a chance to go! I’ve been before however I don’t think I’ve written about that here. I brought BB8 with me this time and discovered that only the 1.5 mile loop trail and a few of the trails leading to campsites were open. The rest were closed because of the wildfire. Boo! The hike itself was nice although it was a bit busy though. I was only there about an hour before I headed back to Philmont. Back on the boring highway 68 north to Taos, then the Taos/Cimarron Canyon roads for what must be the 20th time. I got back at 6pm! The original plan was either 12am or later! Haha It was a short day. See you next time!

Stats

• Total National Park Stamps: 131/424
• Miles Driven today: 284mi (457km)
• Speeding Tickets today: 0
• Average temperature: 70F (21C)
• McDonalds order: #7 with Chocolate Shake