March 26, 2008

Kokopelli's Cave - Our 1st Anniversary!

When we picked up our trailer here in Farmington November of 2006, we had seen an ad for this interesting B&B, built into the face of a cliff, just outside of the city. Our first anniversary just happened to coincide with the stop for warranty work, so we booked "the cave" for our celebration. http://www.bbonline.com/nm/kokopelli/




This one-of-a-kind B&B has been featured on television, magazines, newspaper articles, and is considered one of the top 10 most unique places to stay in the world. A local geologist got the idea in the early 80's to house his office, but after blasting out the cave realized that his clients wern't going to drive out to the middle of nowhere, and hike down 80 feet of cliff face just to have a short business meeting. You can imagine driving up to this ledge, and saying "where's the office?" "oh, right there, just 80ft over that edge!".




As we climbed down the side of the cliff, Kim looked back with apprehension...."are you sure about this, dear?" The entrance to the dwelling is just in front of and to the left of the outcropping with the handrails that's above Kim's head in the photo. The brick walled structure above that is a storage area for equipment & supplies used to work on the dwelling.






Looking across from the top of the cliff way above from the other direction, the dwelling is barely detectable, blending into the rockface almost perfectly!














However, things change quite a bit as one enters the cave! Walking directly in, one is greeted by another rock wall, that is actually circular, with the living area to the left, and bath & kitchen to the right.







This sketch may help.... the entrance at the bottom right, balcony off the beroom to the bottom left, and as you can see, the rooms encircle a central "ROCK" core that was left to help support the cave.



As you enter the living area, you immediately notice the round kiva in the back. A modern-day version of the sacred Anasazi gathering area, provided a wonderful meditation spot complete with candles and a fire.








The bedroom has it's own opening out to a decl on the cliff face, where we enjoyed the wonderful view at dusk & dawn....





While Kim relaxed with her reading, I found the blast marks, layout & design of the structure interesting.












And of course, there's the rock jacuzzi! With a steaming waterfall, glasses of wine and oodles of candles, it provided that perfect romantic anniversary treat!
We highly recommend this place to all for any special occasion, or just an unforgettable visit to this area.











































































2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Happy Anniversary!! And what a super fantastically unique place! WOW!

Nathan said...

Happy Anniversary Dad and Kim! What a cool place - neat find.