Mano Trail, Sandia Mountains, 2/26/2012

Mano trail is a little known trail in on the west side of the Sandias. It starts at the end of Indian School at the Embudo trail head, heads south almost as far as the Copper trail head and then veers west to join the Foothills trail back to the Embudo trail head, 5 miles in all. Elevation about 1000 feet, although it felt like a lot more, hiking up and down several ridges. The  trail gets its name from the "mano" artifacts found in the region. "Mano" is the Spanish word for hand; it is stone tool used to grind corn on a "metate." We had great views of Albuquerque almost all the way.

Our friend Mark joined us on this hike.

He spotted the hawk perched on top of the rocks in the picture above. Yes, it was real... it flew away with a majestic down sweep.

Point were the north-south Mano trail crosses with the southern section of the trail.  The tree is a well known landmark on the saddle that can be seen from the city.

We expected this foothills hike to be level and rather monotonous. It turned out to offer varied landscapes, panoramic views and a good amount of climbing. We especially enjoyed discovering the hidden meadows behind the ridges that cannot be seen from the city and the foothill trails. In one word, a gem of a hike.