Intersecting Interstate 40 at Albuquerque, the Pan-American Central Highway, Interstate 25 crosses to the east side of the Rio Grande, the sheer cliffs of the Sandia Mountains to the east and the distant dark green Jemez Mountains to the northwest. Crossing Galisteo Creek northeast of Santo Domingo Pueblo, Interstate 25 turns toward the northeast, climbs La Bajada Hill, onto the green plains sloping from Santa Fe. Santa Fe, the ancient capital city, is nestled on the edge of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Southeastward and eastward, U.S. Highway 85 (to be Interstate 25 here) rolls, skirting the southern end of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, wedged in by the north-facing cliffs of Glorieta Mesa, through Glorieta Pass, where the Confederates lost the battle for the Southwest, across the upper reaches of Rio Pecos, and around to Las Vegas. Then in straight lines across the western edges of the Great Plains where they lap up onto the Sangre de Cristo ranges, through Wagon Mound and Springer to Raton. The climb up-canyon to Raton Pass, through roadcuts of brown sandstone, shale, and coal, leads into Colorado, with a view of much of southern Colorado from the Pass. Many routes lead northward from ancient Santa Fe. U.S. Highway 285 crosses the high divide near Bishop’s Lodge, follows Rio Tesuque to Pojoaque, crosses the Rio Grande near Espanola amid varicolored badlands cut in the Santa Fe rocks, then heads northward on the black basalt plateau toward Colorado. Black Mesa, a volcanic neck, lies south of Espanola, overlooking the green Rio Grande Valley; atop this height, Pueblo Indians once defied Spanish guns until they starved. Northward, near Tres Piedras, the Ortega and Brazos ranges tower to the west, the perlite-rich hills of No Agua lie to the northeast, and across the basalt plains cut by the Rio Grande, the lofty, snow-capped Sangre de Cristo Mountains loom. At Pojoaque, State Road 4 leads westward, across Otowi bridge of the Rio Grande, then winds up into the canyon and mesa country bordering the Jemez Mountains. Herein lie Bandelier and Los Alamos, one with ancient abandoned pueblos, the other the atomic city. Farther west, the road crosses the rim of an ancient volcano into Valle Grande, the crater of that volcano—some 16 miles across. When this volcano spewed forth hot ashes about a million years ago, the volcanic dust was wind-blown as far as Kansas and Nebraska! At Espanola, U.S. Highway 84 breaks away to the northwest to follow Rio Chama in its canyon carved from redbeds near Abiquiu, past the interesting museum at Ghost Ranch—where bones of Triassic dinosaurs are collected—Echo Amphitheater, El Vado Lake, through Chama, and on up into the San Juan Mountains country of southern Colorado.