Agile Trekker: Bradbury Science Museum, Los Alamos and Valles Caldera National Preserve

Wednesday, November 27, 2024

Bradbury Science Museum, Los Alamos and Valles Caldera National Preserve

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
11/12/2024	1.5 miles	52 minutes	161'	1.7	721.2 miles

Parking:

Los Alamos Nature Center

Map:

Gaia GPS app
aquatic_center.pdf

Directions:

We had time for a quick hike before the Bradbury Science Museum opened. We stopped by the nature center (next to the aquatic center) and used Gaia to formulate a hike. The trail was snowy and a bit hard on my ankle, which doesn't like unstable terrain. Los Alamos does a good job of providing open space trails and pamphlets about them (available at the visitor center).

From there we headed to the Bradbury Science Museum, going through the security checkpoint again. The museum was really interesting. We learned about what the lab works on today - not just national security things. We left the museum when we got hungry and ate a late lunch in the car.

We knew we couldn't hike at Valles Caldera, because they got 3' of snow, but we decided to see if we could drive there. The roads were clear. I think they only have a ranger station, not a visitor center. The road to the ranger station wasn't clear, so we didn't drive on it. But we were able to drive through the park and stop at a couple of pullouts. We saw the caldera and it is a massive, clear meadow on top. The views are amazing. I'd love to see it in warmer weather. We've heard elk walk through it. There are campgrounds and hiking trails up here. It's hard to capture its beauty in a photo.

We took the long way back to Santa Fe so we could see some new scenery. We drove by multiple pueblos, including the Jemez pueblo. We saw a slot canyon hike in the Jemez pueblo. I'd love to do that sometime. We stopped at the trailhead for a short hike to a hot spring, but the trail was snowy and icy, so we passed on it.