Poshuinge Ruins, Espanola, and Los Alamos

We went exploring again today, starting with the Poshuinge Ruins we had passed just south of Abiquiu. We climbed up the steep half-mile trail, expecting to find some ruins at the top. Instead, we found ourselves at an overlook from which the outlines of the ancient settlement could be seen below, in the Chama River valley. We did see one area at the top, a cleared circle, that a sign indicated had been a work area for the inhabitants of the settlement below. Maybe they chipped away at tools while watching for enemies from this vantage point.

We heard thunder in the distance and saw dark clouds approaching, so we climbed back down and found ourselves near the actual settlement, so we walked over. All we could see were the raised earthen mounds that marked the rooms built around the perimeter of the pueblo. We went on to Espanola, where we picked up our mail at the post office and then stopped by the Chamber of Commerce to get visitor information. We picked up brochures for Taos and Santa Fe, Los Alamos and Bandelier National Monument. Then we went to lunch at Angelina's, which the lady at the CofC recommended. The stuffed sopapilla was very good, and we looked over the brochures and decided to head south to Los Alamos to visit the Bradbury Science Museum. The drive led through some striking scenery, and we stopped at the Clinton P. Anderson Scenic Overlook to enjoy the view of the Jemez Mountains and the mesas in the canyon below. Looking at the map of Los Alamos, we noticed that the city is built on mesas, with canyons dividing one part of the city from another. As we drove into town, we immediately spotted the Bradbury Science Museum. My first thought was that the Bradbury in question was Ray Bradbury, the famous science fiction writer, but it is instead Norris Bradbury, the second director of the Lab who is honored. The museum is a fascinating place, with three main galleries. We started in the History Gallery by watching a video about the founding of the lab and the Manhattan Project years. The main message is that the people who worked here were working to protect Americans and the world from the horrors of the world war, but some exhibits do ask visitors to consider whether the dropping of the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki was necessary.

The "Gadget" test assembly 

The research gallery used interactive exhibits to demonstrate the wide diversity of areas of research in the lab, from brain mapping to genomics to the environmental effects of radiation. The computing exhibit was closed for upgrading, but we could see a section on the amazing Roadrunner Supercomputer. It's built from off-the-shelf parts, but can sustain computing speeds of over 1.0 petaFLOPS (an unimaginably large number of operations per second). The defense gallery highlights the current mission of the lab to ensure the safety and security of the country's nuclear deterrent--without ever testing any warheads--and to prevent nuclear proliferation. One of the main uses of the supercomputer is to model the aging of the components of nuclear warheads to ensure their continued reliability. We decided to come back another day to visit Bandelier, which is just south of Los Alamos.