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No matter how much I travel, I still manage to get blown away by someplace new, especially when I get surprised by something I wasn’t expecting. That’s been the case this past few days for me in New Mexico.
This is my first visit to Albuquerque and Santa Fe and I’ve spent a fair bit of that time exploring the countryside beyond the cities. And here’s the first thing I learned: if you can’t afford a plane ticket to Turkey (one of the world’s cheapest destinations—barely), then you might want to hop a cheap flight to New Mexico instead.
The first photo above is from Bandalier National Monument ($12 a car or $6 per person). Most people visit this vast park area for the remains of a 16th-century pueblo settlement in the shape of a circle and the cave dwellings carved into soft rock (a la Cappadocia), some reached now by long wood ladders. On one hike you can climb up a series of ladders reaching 140 feet to visit the old equivalant of a condo development. Another tougher and longer hike leads to a series of waterfalls and a dramatic canyon. You can camp overnight in designated backwoods areas.
For me though it brought back memories of my time in Turkey, viewing a land that seems alien and far removed from where I have grown up or lived. I have to admit this kind of jolt is one of the main kicks I get from travel—to leave the routine behind and be reminded of the differences—so this was a nice surprise.
About a half hour off the main interstate highway between Santa Fe and Albuquerque is another area that shares some similarities with Cappadocia. This is the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument ($5 per car). This is an incredibly beautiful canyon area that would be a geologist’s delight. It also looks like a place Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote would hang out: there’s even one boulder sitting right on the edge of a cliff, awaiting a push. There is one easy hike that takes in most of the initial scenery, then a longer and tougher one that gets you a view of some other “fairy chimneys.”
In all three places, volcanic ash compressed over hundreds of thousands of years became solid rock, but not very solid. Wind and water have eroded the surfaces and created cones or pinnacles sometimes called hoodoos. (Yes, Hoodoo Gurus fans, there’s the origin.) Harder rock on top forms a hat, but if the hat comes off the cone erodes quickly. Along the way, people figured out they could carve into this soft material quite easily and create a cosy home to keep them warm in the winter, cool in the summer.
Have a hankering for hoodoos? Here’s a rundown on where else you can find them.
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