Registration with the program's group leader begins at 4:00 PM and ends at 5:30 PM.

Pick up boxed lunches after class.

At 11:00 AM, the bus will depart for a field trip to Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. Located 40 miles southeast of Santa Fe, Tent Rocks includes a national recreation trail through unique, cone-shaped rock formations, after which the monument was named. The Cave Loop trail is 1.2 miles long; the more difficult Canyon Trail is 3 miles round trip.

You can request chile on the side, if you order New Mexican food, or there will be salads and sandwiches on the menu as well.

This morning, you'll travel to Valles Caldera by way of Jemez Springs. You'll be overwhelmed by the glorious mountains of the area, and surprised by the differences in the landscape along the way.

First, you'll visit the one-million-year old Valles Caldera (volcanic crater) that is 15 miles in diameter and the centerpiece of the Jemez Volcanic Field in northern New Mexico.

The caldera was formed when the volcanic pile collapsed in response to a huge eruption of ash from the magma chamber.

Subsequent resurgence of magma formed domes along the caldera ring fracture, including Redondo Peak which is over 3,000 feet above the Caldera floor.

In 1999, the U.S. government reached an agreement to buy the 95,000 acre Baca Ranch, which encompassed most of the Valles Caldera, for $101 million to permanently protect it as national preserve lands.

The walk into the Caldera is over uneven, slightly hilly ground, and will be no more than one mile round trip.

By 1150 CE, Ancestral Pueblo people began to build more permanent settlements. Reminders of these past times are still evident in the park as are the strong ties to modern Pueblo people.

Several thousand Ancestral Pueblo dwellings are found among the pink mesas and sheer-walled canyons. They were inhabited from the 1100s to the mid-1500s.

In 1880, Jose Montoya of Cochiti Pueblo brought Adolph F. A. Bandelier to Frijoles Canyon, and showed him his people's ancestral homelands.

In 1916, Woodrow Wilson signed a document creating Bandelier National Monument.

You can walk or hike here depending on your physical condition; the two round-trip walks offered by your geologist study guide and his assistant will be one mile round trip or two miles round-trip, and you may choose which you prefer. Terrain is rocky and uneven, with some incline involved, but the easy walk will be a slow and comfortable one, while the longer walk will be a little more strenous.

Bus departs for Espanola at 4:30 PM, with a stop a the White Rock Overlook. The Overlook, just outside of Los Alamos, NM, is a favorite park of tourists and residents alike. It provides magnificent views of the Rio Grande. The cliffs surrounding the area again illustrate the rock strata of the region.

Observe a variety of geological formations in the area, where your geologist explains how they were formed throughout thousands of years of varying climatic conditions.

Check-in at hotel around 5:30 PM.

Abiquiu Village was settled following a 1754 Spanish land grant to Hispanicized Indians and was a frontier settlement. It was a trade center for Plains and Pueblo Indians in the 18th and 19th centuries.

It is located on private land similar to an Indian Pueblo, so you must obtain permission to take photos. The village and its location have been subject to many artists' renderings of the area.

There will be a selection of sandwiches and a choice of dessert.

Now a Presbyterian Conference Center, Ghost Ranch hosts many kinds of programs and conferences.

The Ghost Ranch area is surrounded by red, gray, and yellow hills, including Kitchen Mesa, that O'Keeffe painted many times. The geology of the area is fascinating.

Also, paleontologists worldwide are drawn to the area, because Ghost Ranch was the location of the articulated fossils of the Coelophysis.

It has one of the richest quarries of the Triassic era, which began 220 million years ago.

You'll visit the Ruth Hall Museum of Paleontology, and will see displays ranging from a complete Coelophysis cas skeleton to remains from great alligator-like reptiles.

Bus continues on to Taos, traveling along the Rio Grande. The craggy cliffs surrounding the highway and the beauty of the riverbanks is a spectacular sight.

Hotel check-in at the Comfort Suites in Taos.

The bus then continues on to the village of Chimayo, by way of Penasco. You'll stop for some brief walks in the Penasco area to see the landscape and geologic formations.

On arrival in Chimayo, you'll stop for a visit to the Santuario de Chimayo. The Santuario has been called "The Lourdes of Northern New Mexico" because the soil in a back room of the church is reputed to have healing properties.

Check-out is no later than 12:00 noon.