Los Alamos, NM

Sunday, April 22, 2011 Day 315
Today we drove to Los Alamos to have a look around. This first picture shows the changing vegetation as we climbed up in elevation...there's even a little snow left on the distant mountain.

There was a gap between cliffs here that made us think of the "Hole in the Wall Gang". As we passed the outskirts of Santa Fe, there was a film studio.

Just outside Los Alamos, looking down from a viewpoint along the highway.

We went on a walking tour of Los Alamos, visiting various historic points within the town. We also found a geocache called "fuzz garden"...it was in the landscape outside the police department.
Los Alamos means the cottonwoods...which are in full "bloom" around here now. We knew about the history of the atomic bomb being developed here, but little else before we came. Of course, there were Indians here for hundreds of years, Spanish explorers and settlers. But we also found out that there was a boy's school here, Los Alamos Ranch School, started in 1917 for rich boys primarily from the East Coast who could benefit from the great outdoors. It ran for 26 years, and many of the buildings we visited were from that period.

The historical museum itself is housed in what was primarily a guest house for the school. It is an excellent museum, with great exhibits from ancient times, through the school period, and including the World War II period, when the government bought the land and buildings for the scientists and army personnel working on the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer had visited this area previously as a young man, and recommended the site to the government.

This little "room" was at the end of the historical museum displays....anyone else recognize a "bomb shelter" from the sixties?

The Bradbury Science Museum is named for Norris Bradbury, the Los Alamos lab director from 1945=1970. It was wonderfully overwhelming, with information about the history of the bomb, ongoing research the lab does in many areas, and its defense work.

We particularly liked reading the stories about people who worked here, from scientists to cleaners to army personnel.

This is a replica of "the gadget"...the test bomb that was detonated further south in New Mexico before the "real" ones were made.

After we were too full of information to take any more in, we drove north a bit more to Espanola, and are camped at The Cottonwoods RV park for the night.

Total miles driven today=155