Saturday Adventures South of Albuquerque

When we first arrived in Albuquerque, I would ask everyone I met what were some of their favorite New Mexican things to do. Someone told me about Bosque del Apache. Sadly, everyone here says 'boss-key,' which drives my Spanish-speaking ears crazy...but when I say 'bohs-kay,' everyone stares at me like I don't know what I am talking about. Oh well. But I digress.

Bosque del Apache - an animal refuge where they plant fields that remain unharvested to provide food for animals year round. And there are numerous flocks which migrate here in the winter. So Saturday morning we left at 5:15 to drive 90 minutes south to San Antonio, NM, in order to arrive before sunrise. Because around sunrise, the flocks will take of en mass. We were told it was pretty cool, so we dressed warmly, and arrived just about 10 minutes before sunrise. We saw a large flock in the air near a pond, only to notice that even more birds were still on the ground. The birds in the air were mostly just flying laps around the birds in the pond. After we were sufficiently cold and had been there probably 10 minutes, they suddenly started to take off. For the next 30 seconds the air above us was filled with the sight and sound of thousands of birds. Happily, I caught it on camera.

Then we drove through the rest of the refuge, which was beautiful and full of loads of birds. But nothing was quite as breath-taking as the lift off.

After that we drove to truly the middle of nowhere. The Very Large Array is built where there is almost perfect radio silence, no light, and very water vapor in the air. All these things can disrupt the radio waves that these 27 giant antennae receive from space. I was surprised how cool it was...I thought the kids would be terribly bored, and I assumed that the self-guided tour would be lame. But we were thrilled with how much we all learned.

They actually reposition the 27 antennae every 4 months, after collecting data from all the targets on the agenda. It takes 3 weeks to move them to one of 4 arrangements, ranging from .7 miles to 22 miles across. They then collect data from those same targets again, from the new position. Then, again from the last 2 positions. Once they have collected data from all four positions, they are able to compile the data into a complete picture of the star, galaxy, or nebula they were targeting.

Then a trip to Pie Town, NM, which was not at all worth the drive. Oh well. At least I know not to recommend it to anyone else!