Went back to the bike and started the routine of dressing and packing. The direct sun was really heating me up despite the 60 degree temperature. Upon further reflection somewhere down the road decided that I should gear up in the shade to solve this problem. Guess it's something one learns to do when motorcycling, just like knowing where to put your sunglasses so they don't fall on the ground 4 times when filling up with gas.

Up the canyon road and out the entrance to the park. The Los Alamos National Labs complex is immediately across from the park upon exiting and adjacent to the highway until turning into the mountains. A large satellite dish sticks out of a canyon and would have made a striking picture given the primitiveness nearby. But for the current security conditions at our national facilities didn't want to be that suspicious "guy dressed in black leather on an ugly green motorcycle taking pictures of the lab".

The Los Alamos National Lab Headquarters are located just a few miles down this road. Note the fire damage that was caused by a prescribed burn "gone out of control" at Bandelier in 2000. The flames were at the edge of town with a forecasted wind one fateful night of 35-45 mph posed to blow the fire into Los Alamos and result in massive destruction. The forecasters were wrong and the winds never arrived, but it was some tense times for us New Mexicans. Remember getting into the car that night at work and seeing the smoke from the fires....pretty grim feeling.

Valle Grande is the ancient caldera of a volcano (note the cinder cone in the above picture). When it belched millions of years ago it blew its top off (literally) and spewed volcanic material over this section of the country, giving the soil differing characteristics and coloration (the source of the pink tuft that Indians dug caves in at the monument). Just took this picture from the side of the road on my trip back from Bandelier. When riding earlier this morning it was too cold to stop and hang around.

The government just paid near $200 million for this immense valley a couple of years ago. It has been closed while the Feds figured out how to manage it. Now it's been declared a "National Preserve". Will cost $40 to go into this area and only with a guide - for whatever purpose. We'll have to see what they are going to do with it, it's just a meadow - not Disneyland!!

They are building a road into the meadow for what looks like a visitor's center. Living quarters for workers are parked by the highway. Maybe they will be open by the end of the summer or next year.