Exploring Albuquerque

Monday March 5, 2018 

Monday, after stopping at the Tourist Center, we drove to Valle de Oro, a national wildlife refuge on the Rio Grande.  Had we known, we would have stopped at the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge on the way to Albuquerque  - we learned after the fact, that it is a major stop on the flyway, and frequently has large flocks migrating Sandhill cranes and a variety of water fowl. 

Filling a water tank at Valle de Oro from a feeder channel for the construction work

Valle de Oro was in the process of site construction by the Army Corp of Engineers somewhat limiting access to the trails.  We walked down to the river, and on the way back, we spent time in the woods watching a number of bluebirds and wood peckers.  When the construction is completed, the adjacent open fields will provide resting and feeding space for migrating birds.

Blue bird at Valle de Oro 

We saw metal barriers like this several places along the Rio Grande and
deduced they are meant to hold back debris during floods

After lunch we walked to the the Rio Grande Valley State Park that runs along the Rio Grande flood plain through town.  Although it has a number of trails, trail heads were somewhat limited.  Since the river follows it's own meandering path, the distance from the park back to our Airbnb was a hike. One area had a series of ponds full of water fowl, most of which appeared to have become accustomed to handouts.  It looked like a number of the water fowl were the result of interbreeding between species, making identifying them difficult. 

Some interesting architecture seen on our way to the park

Boat sculpture at the park and water fowl ponds

Male Wood ducks

Female wood duck

Ring-necked duck

Domestic goose - I liked the facial expression - like most of the birds, looking for a handout

After research, I think this a swan goose, an example of interbreeding which results in a bewildering variety of plumage

Tuesday, March 6   

At the suggestion from the Visitor Center staff, we went to the New Mexico Museum of Natural History where a Leonardo Da Vinci exhibit had just opened.  Although the exhibit seemed to more likely to be at an art museum, it was more science than art, detailing recent high resolution spectro reflectivity, giving accurate information about how the Mona Lisa looked when it was painted.  The technology used also allows access to detailed information on the pigments Da Vinci used.  The displays depicted how the paintings look originally, currently and with the protective varnish removed (which brightened the colors) and was more science than art, and quite interesting. (Note: we had a camera problem and most of the museum pictures are missing.)

Our tickets included a planetarium show with a film about astronomy from the evolution of the telescope to distant galaxies, and included a brief talk about the night sky in Albuquerque.  As we left, we met the man in charge of the show who took us see to his favorite exhibit in the museum - the Chaco Canyon  celestial-alignment exhibit.  Evidence suggests Chacoans were expert skywatchers with clear knowledge of cyclic and seasonal patterns of the sun, moon and stars.  This is reflected in the architectural alignment of their great houses and various observational and ceremonial sites around the canyon, the most famous being the Sun dagger, an 11th century petroglyph crafted to mark the cycles of the sun. It was a fascinating exhibit. 

We spent most of the afternoon doing a 'Walk Through Time', an exhibit that wends in a continuous loop through the museum.  It started with the Precambian and Paleozoic eras and proceeded through New Mexico's Ice Age in the Pleistocene era.  The exhibit included a walk through a volcano, and more dinosaurs and fossils. Another terrific museum.

Your grandfather's Buck - a classic car we saw as we walked back thru Olde Town

After a very long drive (750 miles) Mary and Chuck Finn, friends from LCYC, arrived in Albuquerque to spend a few days with us. Maybe the convenience of a parking place by our Airbnb for their RV helped with the last 100 miles.  They'd had RV problems after leaving Minneapolis they hoped to have repaired in Albuquerque.  It seems RVs, like boats, tend to develop multiple problems, usually at inconvenient times.  'RV bucks' appear to be synonymous to 'boat bucks', requiring $100s rather than $10s to repair problems.  They met us at a local Mexican diner that had been recommended by the Visitor Center for dinner before calling it a night.