Category: Trips

One night in Durango CO

We spent one night at Historic Strater Hotel in Durango, an historic mining town in southern Colorado.

The Historic Strater Hotel, built in 1887.
Lobby of the Strater.
Diamond Belle Saloon.
At the Diamond Belle Saloon, this guy played ragtime favorites all night. He was really good!
Main Avenue.
The Durango & Silverton Railroad takes passengers to Silverton on a three hour train ride along the scenic Animas River. We had planned to spend a day on this tour, but unfortunately had to cut it out to shorten the trip.
This is Chimney Rock, near Pagosa Springs CO, on the way to Durango from New Mexico.

Northern New Mexico

Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb:
“I am the Lord, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself…”
–Isaiah 44:24

I was surprised when we drove through northern New Mexico to see the stunning rock formations. Quite a diversity of landscapes!

Manhattan Project National Historical Park

Los Alamos NM

The Los Alamos Main Gate building. Once a security checkpoint, it is now restrooms behind the facade.
Sculptures of J. Robert Oppenheimer (left) and Major General Leslie Groves.
The Historic Fuller Lodge originally served the Los Alamos Ranch School as dining hall, community center, living quarters for some staff, and infirmary. For the Manhattan Project, it remained a dining hall, and also as housing for visiting scientists, and a community center throughout the Manhattan Project.
Ancestral Pueblo Site. In the 1200s, this site was home to a group of Tewa-speaking people who may have come from Mesa Verde or Chaco Canyon. They built structures with blocks of tuff (welded volcanic ash). This building was two stories high and contained bedrooms, cooking areas, storage rooms, and a semi-circular kiva used for ceremonies and meetings for the two or three families who lived here.
Hans Bethe’s house.
Rear of Hans Bethe’s house.
Bethe’s Living Room.
Bethe’s Kitchen.
Oppenheimer’s house.
Oppenheimer’s Living Room.

Bradbury Science Museum

Los Alamos NM

The Bradbury Science Museum is Los Alamos National Laboratory’s official public museum, helps visitors learn about the Lab’s beginnings during the Manhattan Project and how the Lab’s continuing work enables global security.
Information about Little Boy, the first bomb dropped on Japan.
A mock-up of Little Boy
The dropping of Little Boy on Hiroshima.
Information about Fat Man, the second bomb dropped on Japan.
Mock-up of Fat Man.
The dropping of Fat Man on Nagasaki.
A rack for underground nuclear testing.
A nuclear device (unarmed!) and the timing and firing equipment.
Full-scale model of a Vela Satellite, which is a satellite-based monitoring of nuclear explosions.
Model of a B61-12 thermonuclear gravity bomb.
Model of aa DAHRT confinement vessel, which contains various shielding plates that contain the explosion and resultant debris associated with a hydrotest. It also contains collinators, which reduce the amount of scatter, thus enhancing image quality captured during a hydrotest.
Model of MK-12A reentry vehicle, which is used in ICBMs (intercontinental ballistic missiles), specifically containing W78 warhead when armed.
Model of ALCM (Air-Launched Cruise Missile), which would be delivered by a strategic bomber such as the B-52 Stratofortress. The inner content when armed is a W80 nuclear warhead.
Models of Major General Leslie Groves (left), and J. Robert Oppenheimer.
This is a detonator similar to the one used in the Trinity test, and in Fat Man.
Respirators used at Los Alamos.
This is a lens that was issued to Trinity Test observers.
This armored still camera was used to photograph implosions at Los Alamos.
A Mitchell 35mm Movie Camera, this was used to record the world’s first nuclear explosion at the Trinity test.
Scale Model of the Gadget, an implosion device of the same design as the Fat Man bomb. The wiring on the surface leads to the detonators that set off the implosion.
Criticality experiment mock-up. During a “dragon-type experiment” in which a subcritical assembly is brought close to critical, in 1946, an accident occurred when Louis Slotkin’s screwdriver slipped, allowing two hemispheres of beryllium to enclose a subcritical mass of plutonium, releasing a tremendous burst of gamma rays and neutrons. Slotkin received a fatal dose, and seven others were exposed.

New Mexico State Capitol

Santa Fe NM

The capitol of New Mexico is a round building.
The center of the building.
Beautiful interior.
The Rotunda.
House of Representatives chamber.
Senate chamber.
Plaza of Santa Fe in the 1800s, in Buon Fresco, by Frederico M. Virgil, 1992.
Buffalo, Retail and handwoven, Magnetic tape, film, paintbrushes, wire, quilting applique, by Holly Hughes, 1992.
Hoshonzeh, Acrylic on panels, by Douglas Johnson, 1992. Hoshonzeh, translated from Navajo, means “Harmonious Way”, which is a ceremony performed to bring about harmony among all things natural.
Center of the rotunda floor from the third floor.