March 2013 44
atmosphere are remini-
scent of a wild west
saloon, thankfully with-
out the cigar smoke.
Cowboy hats and shot-
guns are hung on the
stone fireplace, and
dozens of deer and elk
heads are hung above
the tables, and there's a
bear head above the bar.
I order a green chile
cheeseburger, a New
Mexican specialty.
There's a pool table in
the corner, and George
Strait songs are pouring
out of a speaker at a
volume not normally tolerated in a restaurant. Obviously this place is more of a saloon than a restaurant, and I imagine it can get pretty rowdy on a Friday night. Being
the mountain man, cowboy and traveler that I am, I loved this place as soon as I opened the heavy wood door. The burger was delicious, and I'll definitely make it a point to stop here again next time I find myself out that way. The hot springs may provide rejuvenation, but that cheeseburger sure did the trick for me. Now that I was fueled up, I drove the next few miles and pulled off at Jemez State Monument. Walking trails wind around the hills, which are covered with stone ruins of a 500-year-old Jemez village, some of which are built right into the hillside. You can walk down into a reconstructed kiva, and walk among the walls of a 17th Century Spanish church; the roof is long gone, and a carpet of grass and weeds takes place of the pews.
Jemez State Monument
-Eamon Decker
Though the village is long abandoned, you can still imagine the Jemez people holding a ritual in the sacred kiva, and you can almost hear the voices of Spanish missionaries. Most of the buildings are now just rock foundations, and I wondered what this place looked like back in its heyday. Shortly after the Spanish established the mission, the Jemez People abandoned the village and settled a new village where they could practise their own beliefs. That village is the current Jemez Pueblo. I continued up Route 4, and the road then makes a hairpin curve, then skirts along the rim of Valles Caldera. What appears to be a lush, green valley was once a fiery volcano that erupted over 250 cubic miles of ash and lava. That ash and lava