Aroud Our House Santa Fe

Below: The View Out Our Front Door To The North West. Notice How It Began To Disapear

Looking west toward the Jemez when house built.

LEFT: Jemez view when house built.
RIGHT:
View 20 years
later.

The Jemez Mountains are a classic example of intercontinental volcanism and consist of a broadly circular ridge surrounding the famous Valles Caldera. The most recent known eruption was a basalt flow dated to 50,000 to 60,000 years before the present; however, most of the volume of the range is composed of hyalite. The two most recent caldera-forming eruptions, dated to about 1.4 million and 1.1 million years ago, produced massive ignimbrite deposits known as the Otowi and Tshirege members, respectively, of the Bandelier Tuff. Much of the material in these deposits now forms the Pajarito Plateau, a scenic region of canyons and mesas on which Los Alamos is situated. Redondo Peak, the second highest summit in the range at 11,254 ft (3431 m), is a resurgent dome in the middle of the Valles Caldera, which also contains several smaller volcanos. The caldera is segregated by these structures and its rim into multiple lush grass valleys (valles in Spanish, hence the name).

Below: The View Out Our Front Door To the North East - Sangre de Christo Mountains.

Out Front Door East to Sangre de Christo mountain

Only a few months later the building began.

We can still see the top of the Christos

The Sangre de Christos from a field south of us.

LEFT PIC: The view out front door when house was finished. Look how the Christos began to disappear.

The Sangre de Cristo Mountains (Spanish for "Blood of Christ") are the southernmost subrange of the Rocky Mountains. They are located in northern New Mexico and southern Colorado in the United States. The mountains run from Poncha Pass in South-Central Colorado, trending southeast and south, ending at Glorieta Pass, southeast of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The mountains contain a number of fourteen thousand foot peaks in the Colorado portion, as well as all of the peaks in New Mexico which are over thirteen thousand feet.

The name, Spanish for "blood of Christ", is said to come from the red color of the range at some sunrises and sunsets, especially when the mountains are covered with snow, alpenglow. However the particular origin of the name is unclear, and the name in fact only dates back to the early 19th century. Before that time the terms "La Sierra Nevada", "La Sierra Madre", "La Sierra", and "The Snowies" (used by English speakers) were used.^[1] Sometimes the archaic Spanish spelling "Christo" is used.

The View Out Our Back Door And How It Disappeared.

View out back door Sandia Mountain at Albuquerque house first built

I recall, when the house was first finished, the inspector walked throughout; me tagging along like a lap dog to see if he had any red tags to place here or there where I had made mistakes. He found none and I was the proud owner of a house I had almost built myself. After he gave me the approval slip and left I walked around the new house. At the back door I could see (LEFT: First day we move in) the Sandia mountains, from the West door and the North door (front) I could see the Jemez and the Sangre de Christo's.

However, it would be only a couple years before the view of the Sandias would disappear from our back door view. Houses began to spring up by the two's and suddenly we had neighbors that we thought we would not have for several years living with us in the "City Different." We could see the mountains again, however, as each buyer brought his favorite tree and other vegetation the mountains began to disappear again.

So, here we were on April 3, 1981 in our new house with nothing but mounds of dirt surrounding us. April 4th, however, was another matter. The wind began to blow, where we had been told it rarely ever did. It actually blew until June. At times we were unable to see any of our beautiful

mountains because of the blowing dirt from the unimproved lots the developer had scraped free of vegetation.

We made it to fall when the trees begin to turn golden. Some stay green year round and mix with the golden ones for great scenes. Wild Sunflowers come out each fall to greet the coming cold weather and snow can produce some amazing sunsets such as the one you see here in October of 2007. They are different every evening. (RIGHT: Pic view of Sandias now.) One can only see a tip of the mountain between all the trees. Our 360 degree view is gone.

The seasons seem to change very abruptly here. One day there is snow on the ground and the next day it's warm enough to walk comfortably in light clothing. Suddenly, spring is here with some of the native flowers beginning to bloom. However, I think spring in Santa Fe is actually in the fall. This is the time you will see some of the most beautiful native flowers and vegetation.

Santa Fe In The Fall

Arroyo near out house alive with the Chamisa

Santa Fe In The Winter

Oh Yeah! I Want To Show You One Last Snow Shot.

This is our new Roadrunner rail system. It runs from Belen, NM all the way to Santa Fe, through Albuquerque and destined for points toward the Norther border of Colorado. The picture was taken from an overpass South of Santa Fe and you are looking back at Santa Fe in the distance. It has grown quite popular although at the beginning there was controversy in the cost of the train. For some distance it runs down the middle of I-25 and you might see it on it daily schedule.

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