Bernarillo, New Mexico - Days 16-18

Wow, am I behind on posting things or what?!?  As of tomorrow, we will have been on the road for 28 days.  It seems like it was just a few days ago that I was packing.  I can't believe how fast time goes.

We spent three nights at the Albuquerque North/Bernalillo KOA.   By the time we got here, we were just so tired from the prior 2 weeks.  We had done so much hiking and climbing and driving.  When we got here, all we wanted to do was just rest.   I didn't take hardly any pictures while we were here, either, so this post is going to be pretty boring.

There was a fence around the entire campground, but there was a pathway and a gate in the back by where our site was.

Of course, we had to go through that door! (Even though I can't stand beer).  It led to the Kaktus Brewing Company.  This place seems to be a well-known local hangout for pizza and beer.  They have pizzas made with wild game such as elk, wild boar and duck.   They do have pepperoni, too, though.  We went for dinner our first night and had the Wild Spicy Elk pizza (made with elk sausage) and the Red Pumpkin pizza (thin pumpkin slices, goat cheese and chili sauce).   Definitely interesting.  And good.  

Kaktus Brewing company is a nano-brewery.  They use a small, two barrel brewing system.   They offered several different types of beer.  According to the hubby and son, the beer was great too! 

I settled for a glass of New Mexico Riesling.  It was also very good.

The next day we visited the Coronado Historical Site in Bernalillo.  It is a small site where the ruins of the Kuaua Pueblo were excavated.

During the excavation in the 1930s,  they discovered a square kiva (ceremonial chamber) that had many layers of mural paintings.  These murals are some of the greatest examples of Pre-Columbian art found in the United States.  At the Visitor Center, they have volunteers who do a guided tour of sorts. They take you through the small visitor center which has on exhibit prehistoric and historic Puebloan and Spanish Colonial artifacts, and tell you some additional information about the artifacts as well as what was happening in that area during that time period.

The last part of the tour takes you outside (where it was very hot that afternoon!) and explain what ruins were found there and how the historic site got the name 'Coronado'  (In 1540, Francisco Vásquez de Coronado was in the area looking for the fabled ' Cities of Gold').  The painted kiva was reconstructed, and a local Native American artist was hired to recreate one of the mural layers.  The guide took us into this reconstructed Kiva (had to climb up a ladder to get to the top of it, then down a ladder to get inside).  You are not allowed to enter without one of the guides, and you aren't allowed to take any photos inside either.  There is also mural room that has 14 examples of the original art work that was recovered from the kiva walls.  (no pictures allowed in there, either).   

Part of the pueblo was reconstructed, as well.  The original was re-buried and lies under the reconstruction.

This was us standing on top of the reconstructed Kiva, next to the ladder that you had to climb down to get inside it. The guide wanted to take the picture for us, so we let her.  Nice view in the background, though.

The next day, I worked in the morning, and then we went to PetsMart and Albertsons.  I had hoped to drive into Old Town Albuquerque, but we were just too tired to do much of anything, so we just took it easy the rest of the day.

I had wanted to do my laundry that night, but their laundry room closed at 7:00 pm!  So, lucky me, I got to get up and do laundry at 7:30 Friday morning before we left for our next stop.

RV and campground info

This was a nice campground.  We had a pull-through site that was actually level!  It was the first totally level site we've had so far. Each site had a picnic table on a 'grassy' area, but the grass was artificial turf.  It was actually quite nice though.   There were also tent sites and cabins.  I don't know why I didn't take pictures, but I didn't.

The laundry room was ok.  It was clean and had 4 washers and 4 dryers that all worked.  Good price - $1.50 per wash and $1 to dry.  The only bad thing was the laundry closed at 7 pm

The Showers/restrooms were clean. The water pressure good.  And they stayed open 24 hours.

The pool looked nice, but was only open till 7:00 pm.

There were 2 dog parks (3 really, as one of them was really 2 separated areas side by side).  They were nice. They had tires and tunnels for the dogs to play in.  One side had a picnic table you could sit at while your dog played.  It was also in a mostly shady spot, which was a bonus.

They did offer breakfast (for a price) on Friday, Sat and Sun.  We did not eat there, though, since we were leaving on Friday morning.