molly.com
Friday 23 April 2004
TravelBlog: Los Alamos and Berkeley, April 13-16 2004
Left the house last Tuesday before dawn. Flew to Albuquerque, New Mexico, rented a car. The destination: Los Alamos, to speak at Los Alamos National Laboratory about Web standards. Warren, who organized the speakers for the event, sent along directions for the scenic route, which passes through the Jemez Mountains.
Taking I-25 north for a bit, I turned onto State Highway 505. The terrain at this point was dusty, empty desert with tremendous distant mountains all along the horizon. The vista became more interesting the closer I got to the Jemez Mountains. I passed several pueblos, including the famous Zuni pueblo. Turned off onto State Highway 4 and then things started to really get interesting. Entering the Jemez National Monument, the earth and mountains become an insanely deep red - even more red than the earth up in Sedona. Continuing on, I passed through the Jemez Pueblo. Many of the homes have large hornos (ovens made of clay) outside.
Jemez Springs is a town right outside of the Jemez pueblo, a very pretty area in a slim valley of cottonwood trees by the river, with stunning, sheer cliffs all around. It’s an interesting little town, its history based around healing hot springs found there. The Bodhi Manda Zen Center is right next door to a drying-out retreat for Catholic priests, which I found somewhat humorous - and oddly comforting. A few B&Bs, a bar, and some specialty shops make up this small town.
A little farther along the road is the Soda Dam, a natural dam made up of calcium carbonate deposited over millions of years. The deposits look like water, falling.
Driving north, I began to travel higher into the mountains. The air was crisp and clean, and some snow covered the ground. I entered the Valles Caldera National Preserve, which is an odd but stunning bowl in the earth created from massive volcanic activity. After leaving Valles Caldera, the roads climb even higher into thick Aspen forests, with fields of snow and small ponds. There were very few live inhabitants around, but lots of roadkill, which also meant I got to see some great birds of prey - one hawk I saw had a truly impressive wingspan, which I failed to grab a picture of quickly enough before he flew off.
Climbing over the top of the mountain, the road became very steep and winding, to the point where suddenly I was switch backing right down - the final curve was one of the sharpest ones I’ve ever driven around. And then quite suddenly, there’s a quick turn off and the Los Alamos National Laboratory property begins. A few miles along and I found myself in the town of Los Alamos, which is rather small and easy to navigate. I found my hotel very quickly, got checked in, and then went over to the Bradbury Science Museum.
If you find yourself in Los Alamos, you must visit the Bradbury Science Museum. It focuses mostly on the history of Los Alamos and the making and testing of nuclear weapons. It’s a difficult place to visit, no question, but everyone would do well to experience it. Met up with Warren there and some other folks and Warren piled us all into a comfortable government van. A native of the area, Warren gave us a very interesting tour. We drove around the perimeter of the entire laboratory property. The land is very odd, with porous, sand-colored mesas on one side. He pointed out where Los Alamos has tents set up - apparently they are preparing low-level radioactive waste such as workers clothes, masks, gloves and sorting through it to send it to its final resting place somewhere deep in Colorado.
The event itself went well, with a warm welcome party and delicious Mexican dinner the night before. I was the opening act, with Jeffrey Veen following. We had a good morning - unfortunately I had to leave to drive back to Albuquerque and catch a flight to Oakland. I had enough time to take the scenic route back - which was just as gorgeous as the day before, although a lot of snow had melted as the weather got warm. My flight to Oakland was easy, and I got settled in to my hotel in Berkeley, ready to enjoy the Waterside conference, which is my literary agency’s yearly gathering for computer and technology book authors, editors, and publishers.
It’s usually a great place to meet up with fellow authors, and this year was no exception - I enjoyed the company of Dave Taylor, Laura Lemay, Deb Shadovitz, Danny Goodman, Christian Crumlish to name a few
of my faves. Dave did an excellent presentation about self promotion for authors, focusing on weblogs, newsletters, and other practical but extremely important ways for those of us in the “industry” to get our stuff out to readers. Xian talked about his upcoming book, The Power of Many, which is something you’ll want to put on your wish list right now. The event concluded with a dinner cruise around the San Francisco Bay, with close-ups of Alcatraz and a magnificent sunset behind the Golden Gate Bridge.
For a four day trip, it was quite a whirlwind. As you can imagine, I’m glad to be home for a couple of weeks!
Filed under: general
Posted by: site admin | 4:29 am |
April 23rd, 2004 at 1:44 am
Great post, Mols. The descriptions were so vivid. Great photos, too! I hope that bird in the road made it out ok.
April 25th, 2004 at 4:10 am
Glad you got to take the scenic route - the red rocks are indeed gorgeous! I spent a few days in Jemez Springs in September, just lounging around.
April 25th, 2004 at 8:53 am
Haha! Thanks Phil, yeah, the bird made it out fine, but whatever it was chowing on hadn’t
September 8th, 2004 at 1:37 pm
you might appreciate this rather special history of los alamos:
http://www.glennfishbine.com/COURBROWSE.htm
April 9th, 2007 at 6:21 am
nice pictures of Albuquerque.
thanks
May 9th, 2007 at 4:45 am
great photo
May 21st, 2007 at 10:13 pm
I was also there and I can suggest for everyone to make an holiday in this area?
best regards, marc
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June 28th, 2007 at 9:09 am
Hey Molly, great photos.
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