While staying at Cochiti Lake Campground we spent one day in Santa Fe area and another around Los Alamos.
First stop was Pecos National Historic Park.
There are old Pueblos and a Mission.
I love walking through and seeing history.
This little one could not work up the nerve to go into the Kiva.
It is hardest being the smallest sometimes.
Such a great stop!
The next stop was the Santa Fe Children’s Museum!
We have a local children’s museum pass that is affiliated with some associations that helped us a lot on our trip!
We were able to get in for 50% off at the Santa Fe Children’s Museum!
I have learned to add children’s museums and other fun stops on our trips or I have a revolt.
Apparently not all of my kids think hiking and learning about history is as fun as I do.
The next day we headed to the Los Alamos area and the Bandelier National Monument!
I thought this stop would be a little closer to our campsite but the main road in was closed so we had to go back through Santa Fe to get there.
The four oldest and I had fun checking out these ancient homes.
My husband stayed in the vehicle with our youngest and the dog since dog’s are not allowed.
The main loop is pretty easy, you don’t even have to go up to the cliff dwellings so it can be as easier or harder based on what you want to see.
Next stop was the Valles Caldera!
There was not much to do there for us but it was beautiful!
And the kids loved watching the prairie dogs!
Next we drove into Los Alamos and stopped at the Los Alamos Nature Center.
The nature center was really well done and the kids really liked it.
The trails were not amazing after all the hiking we had been doing but it was a good chance to get the dog out before heading to a museum.
The Bradbury Science Museum is a free look into the Los Alamos National Laboratory and had a LOT of hands on exhibits!
It does talk about the Atomic Bomb and has World War 2 exhibits so if you have one sensitive to that, keep that in mind.
They had a really easy scavenger hunt that was a huge hit with the girls!
My second oldest did the harder one and he had to work for it!
Ha!
We also took their advice and stayed at Cochiti Lake Campground (An Army Corps Campground).
We went right after setting up our site since it was so close to our campground.
This was our turnaround spot for that day.
They are redoing a lot of the campground so that the showers and bathrooms are really nice in some areas but closed or rundown in others.
We drove down to a different bathhouse so I still thankfully got a shower 😉
We went on our second hike at Tent Rocks on a Sunday Morning right after it opened.
This time we were prepared to hike to the top.
The kids brought snacks for the top and water.
With our National Park Pass the campground was 50% off so it was only $10 a night for water and electric!
I had planned on us heading south to a campground that I only knew about from some references on google maps.
While staying there we drove on a crazy “road” up to the Gorge Bridge.
We also went for this hike on the La Vista Verde trail on our way back to our campsite and it was so pretty.
I was not ready to leave this area at all and wanted to stay longer but we only had two weeks so we started heading further south the next day and got to see one of the main things I went to see.