Coming up the hill:

Dramatic outcroppings of earth:

. . . begging the question, How did this come about? In the Leaving Los Alamos post, you will see this very same view in the evening . . .:

On the way up, it looked like Los Alamos was precariously perched on top of some skinny little mesa strip atop a butte, and I remember seeing the Los Alamos Airport way above the road . . . but when I kept going up the hill, eventually I saw the airport way below! You can see it just over the bus here:


That means the first shots in this post were waaaaay below:

The View From The Hill:



The View Of The Hill:

So apparently, this amazing place is merely the hillside of an old volcano where the erosion has carved a series of radiating gullies that show sedimentary layers from old seas that used to be right here. The hill where I shot these pictures was just halfway up the caldera. There had been a fire in these hills a few years ago, that is why the trees look a bit burnt, but the undergrowth gave a great impression of a beautiful spring day in the northeast where it is sunny and warm but the leaves have not filled in yet.
Now take a look at that little toy bridge down there:

Not three minutes and two ear pops later:

Beautiful. Dramatic. Bewitching. And good people . . . next post.
Colin