Page 206 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - Southwest USA & National Parks

204  NE W MEXIC O NOR THERN NE W MEXIC O  205

2 Los Alamos peoples for around 500 years
from the 12th to the 16th
Road map E3. * 12,000. n 109
Central Park Square (505) 662-8105. centuries when successive
Open 9am–5pm Mon–Fri; 9am–4pm communities grew corn and
Sat; 10am–3pm Sun. squash, and carried out hunting.
∑ visit.losalamos.org The earliest occupants are
thought to have carved the soft
Los Alamos is famous as the volcanic rock of the towering cliffs
location of the Manhattan Project to make cave dwellings; later
(see p190), the US Government’s people built houses and pueblos
top-secret research program for from rock debris.
the development of the atomic Façade of Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos One of the most fascinating
bomb during World War II. sights here is the ruin of the
Government scientists took over E Los Alamos Historical Museum festivals; call the Walatowa visitor 400-room Tyuonyi village. The
this remote site in 1943. In 1945 1050 Bathtub Row. Tel (505) 662-6272. center on (575) 834-7235 for dates. settlement is laid out with The façade of the Plaza Hotel in the main square of Las Vegas
the first atomic bomb was Open 10am–4pm Mon–Fri (9am– The region is famous for its semicircular lines of houses on
detonated at the Trinity test site 4pm in summer), 10am–4pm Sat & hot springs. Spence Hot Springs, the floor of Frijoles Canyon. Pecos Puebloans acted as a 6 Las Vegas
in the southern New Mexico Sun. Closed public hols. 7 7 miles (11 km) north of town, From the visitor center, also in conduit for goods such as Road map E3. * 13,500. @ £
desert near Alamogordo (see p228). ∑ losalamoshistory.org has several outdoor hot pools the canyon, the Main Loop Trail buffalo skins and meat, and n 500 Railroad Ave. (505) 425-3707.
Today, the town is home to linked by waterfalls. leads past Tyuonyi to some of the Puebloan products including ∑ visitlasvegasnm.com
scientists from the Los Alamos cave dwellings and the Long pottery, textiles, and turquoise.
National Laboratory, a leading 3 Jemez Springs T Jemez Historic Site House, multistoried dwellings The village is thought to have Not to be confused with its
defense facility. The Bradbury Road map E3. * 450. n Highway 4. Off Hwy 4. Tel (575) 829-3530. Open built into an 800-ft (240-m) been among the largest in Nevada cousin (see pp98–135),
Science Museum showcases its ∑ jemezsprings.org 8:30am–5pm Wed–Sun. Closed Mon, stretch of the cliff. Petroglyphs the Southwest. It stood up Las Vegas, New Mexico, has its
work, with security and technology Tue, public hols. & 7 partial. can be spotted above the holes to 5 stories high, with nearly own high-rolling past. Vegas
exhibits, and replicas of Little The small town of Jemez Springs ∑ nmhistoricsites.org/jemez that once held the roof beams. 700 rooms housing over means “meadows” in Spanish,
Boy and Fat Man, the atomic lies in San Diego Canyon, by Another short trail leads to the 2,000 people, a quarter of them and the town’s old Plaza was
bombs dropped on Hiroshima the Jemez River, on land once Alcove House, perched 150 ft warriors. When the Spanish established along the lush
and Nagasaki in 1945. The Los occupied by the Giusewa Pueblo. (46 m) up in the rocks and arrived in the early 1540s, it riverfront by Spanish settlers
Alamos Historical Museum Its ruins and those of a 17th- reached by ladders. was a strong regional power. But in 1835. A lucrative trade stop
covers local geology and history. century mission church are now by 1821 Comanche raids, disease, on the Santa Fe Trail, Las Vegas
part of the Jemez Historic Site. and migration had taken their soon became a wild frontier
E Bradbury Science Museum Remnants of the mission walls 5 Pecos National toll; the pueblo was almost town. Doc Holliday, who briefly
15th & Central Ave. Tel (505) 667-4444. and a reconstruction of its huge Historical Park deserted, and the inhabitants owned a saloon here, was among
Open 10am–5pm Tue–Sat, 1–5pm main gates are here. A few miles moved to Jemez Pueblo. its legendary characters (see
Sun & Mon. Closed public hols. 7 south, on Hwy 4, Jemez Pueblo Road map E3. Hwy 63. Tel (505) 757- The pueblo site can be seen p59). The coming of the railroad
∑ lanl.gov/museum is open only on feast days and 7241. Open Jun–Aug: 8am–6pm daily; on a 1.25-mile (2-km) trail that in 1879 brought even greater
Sep–May: 8am–4:30pm daily. Closed winds past them and the ruined pros perity, and new building
Dec 25. & 7 ∑ nps.gov/peco remains of two Spanish mission took place around the station.
The Rio Grande churches. There are also two Grand Victorian architecture
One of America’s great rivers, the Rio Grande evokes romantic Located across Hwy 63, about reconstructed kivas (sacred still prevails and self-guided tours
images of frontier legends, from Billy the Kid to John Wayne. Its 25 miles (40 km) southeast ceremonial sites). The visitor are available from the visitor center.
mythic status grew up from movies and TV westerns, but its historical Mission church of San Jose at Jemez of Santa Fe, Pecos National center has exhibits of historic Outdoor activities are pop ular
and geographical importance is no less fascinating. From its source in Historic Site Historical Park includes the ruins artifacts and crafts, and a in the area, with golf resorts
Colorado, the fifth-longest river in the United States flows southeast of the once-influential Pecos video covering 1,000 years of and the water sports of Storrie
for 1,885 miles (3,000 km) to the Gulf of Mexico. It crosses New Pueblo. Situated in a pass Puebloan history in the area. Lake State Park just a few miles
Mexico, then forms the entire boundary between Texas and Mexico. 4 Bandelier National through the Sangre de out of town.
Used for irrigation since ancient times by the pueblos, in the 16th Cristo Mountains, the
century, Spanish settlers established towns and villages along the Monument pueblo dominated
length of the river. Today, crops including cotton, citrus fruits, and Road map E3. Off Hwy 4. Tel (505) trade routes between
vegetables are grown along its fertile banks.
672-3861. Open sunrise–sunset daily; the Plains Indians
visitor center: 9am–5pm daily (to 6pm and the Pueblo
mid-May to mid-Oct). Closed Jan 1, peoples between
Dec 25. & 7 partial. No pets.  1450 and
∑ nps.gov/band 1550.
Set in the rugged cliffs and
canyons of the Pajarito Plateau,
Bandelier National Monument
has over 3,000 archaeological
sites that are the remains of an
Ancestral Pueblo culture. The site
The dramatic Rio Grande Gorge carved by the river, south of Taos is thought to have been occupied
by ancestors of the Puebloan One of the ruined Spanish mission churches in Pecos National Historical Park
For hotels and restaurants see pp241–2 and pp258–260

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Eyewitness Travel LAYERS PRINTED:
Catalogue template “UK” LAYER
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Date 12th July 2013
Size 125mm x 217mm