We got home just after midnight after another long, but exciting day.

We got home just after midnight after another long, but exciting day. I don't have as many photos on my phone as I did yesterday because I drove most of the day (I'm not complaining; I like driving). But I will share some highlights. 😊

We started out heading to the Jemez Mountains. We stopped at a small museum at some ruins. They had the craziest bathroom wall. The ruins in the video are from a church built in the 1700s. The kiva (the thing with the ladders) is an underground pit with stools and a fireplace. There were signs up asking for no photography of the inside of the kiva since it is sacred, so we respected that.

After that we went to see the Valles Caldera. My understanding is that it's an extinct volcano. It's a prairie-like area on top of a mountain which was created when the volcano blew the top of the mountain off. That area is now home to elk (who we didn't see today) and also prairie dogs (who we did see). From Wikipedia: "Valles Caldera is a 13.7-mile wide volcanic caldera in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico. Hot springs, streams, fumaroles, natural gas seeps and volcanic domes dot the caldera floor landscape." I definitely want to go back there and spend more time exploring.

After THAT, we started heading to the Bisti Badlands... or so we thought. Turns out that there was a road closed on the way which cost us about an hour of time, but we did make it to there... but not before Google helped us to make another bad navigation decision that had us going down almost 30 miles of graveled / dirt roads. 😂

It truly was an adventure, though. We spent most of the day without cell service or internet. We saw unfenced horses (with a foal!) that might have been wild, some cows, a bull who looked like he wanted to attack the car, 3 beautiful calves hanging out near the (obviously barely used) road, and also the Rocky Mountains from a distance. I will share pictures of all of that when I have them available, but for now they're all on Shaun and Krystahl's cameras.

My favorite part of the day was exploring the Badlands. It's an unmarked wildlife area, so you just had to get out there to see what you could see. Unfortunately we were shorter on time than we wanted to be, but we did see some crazy, beautiful formations. I 100% will be going back there. I don't know when, but I will. I need at least a few days in a camper or van because today just wasn't enough. I have tons of photos, but I'll share my best ones here.

From the official government website (because I could not explain it better): "The Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness is a rolling landscape of badlands which offers some of the most unusual scenery found in the Four Corners Region. Time and natural elements have etched a fantasy world of strange rock formations made of interbedded sandstone, shale, mudstone, coal, and silt. The weathering of the sandstone forms hoodoos - weathered rock in the form of pinnacles, spires, cap rocks, and other unusual forms. Fossils occur in this sedimentary landform. Translated from the Navajo language, Bisti (Bis-tie) means "a large area of shale hills." De-Na-Zin (Deh-nah-zin) takes its name from the Navajo words for "cranes.""

The last stop of the day was for food at Gabby's. It looked like a diner from the 1950s and the food was EXCELLENT. It was an adorable and cozy little place to eat and a great way to (almost) end the day. We were still 2 hours from home, but we'll definitely stop there again when we go back to the Badlands.

Next up: Meow Wolf Santa Fe!

Formations at the Badlands

Formations at the Badlands

Still the Badlands

The wall of this bathroom is insane in the best way.

Formations at the Badlands

Formations at the Badlands

Outside of Gabby's

Information about the church

Formations at the Badlands

Part of the caldera

Inside of Gabby's

Information about the kiva

I was trying to get out of the kiva, not look sassy, but I guess I did both. 😂

Formations at the Badlands