Los Alamos & Jemez Mountain Scenic BywayOct 17, 2008
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A GOOD OVERVIEW MAP!
RODGER AT THE BRADBURY SCIENCE MUSEUM!
PLUTONIUM POWER EXHIBITED!
| We have so many destinations available to us within a day's drive from our Cochiti Lake home base. Today we set off with Rodger and Sharon at the helm for a visit to Los Alamos, an hour and a half's drive and northwest of Santa Fe. There is a short-cut that we will attempt at a later date though not right after a recent rainfall! You can probably guess there are a lot of “Jeep” roads in the area! Los Alamos is known for its National Laboratory, one of the premier scientific institutions in the history of the world. However, this modern day culture of Los Alamos cannot be separated from the science and technology introduced with the early 1940s wartime mission to protect the free world. In 1943 some of the world’s greatest scientific minds were tasked with unlocking the secrets hidden in the atom. J. Robert Oppenheimer, a physicist at the University of California and his team of men and women, conducted fundamental research which produced the world’s first atomic bomb. Today the core mission of the Laboratory is solving national problems in the areas of defense, energy, environment, health and infrastructure. Since the technical areas of the Lab are off limits for public visits the Community Programs Office operates the Bradbury Science Museum in downtown Los Alamos. The Museum provides an opportunity for us to experience more than 40 high-tech interactive exhibits within its galleries. We watched a 20 minute film on the history of the race to build the first atomic bomb which showed the “contained” living conditions of those who lived and worked here at the “town that never was”. All residents had P. O. boxes in Santa Fe – Los Alamos was not known to the world! After our tour of the museum we had a great lunch at a local Mexican restaurant and then decided, with several hours of daytime left, that we would return via the Jemez Mountain National Scenic Byway! One of 8 official “byways” in the state, the Jemez has an abundance of scenic, natural, cultural and historic assets. From Los Alamos we head toward Jemez Springs on Highway 4, up through a dense forest dotted with gold, to an elevation of 9,000 feet. At this point the view opens to reveal the incredible Valles Caldera, a volcanic crater with elk grazing and trails to fishing and hot springs. We return on Highway 550 through Bernilillo and north on 1-25 to the turn-off to Santo Domingo Pueblo, which completes our scenic and historic loop drive for today! Stay tuned for the short cut! |
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