Three Gun Spring Embudo Loop 6/7/09

South view from Three Gun Spring Trail towards Tijeras Canyon. We made a loop starting at the Three Gun Spring trailhead up to the crest and then heading down Embudo Canyon to our second car. A moderate and leasurely 6 to 7-mile hike we finished in a about 6 hours (that's right, we took our time). Except for some strong winds, it was a gorgeous late spring day in the Sandias before the summer dryness takes its toll.

Smoke bush (a well deserved name) with view towards the southeast.

Jim standing next to one of nature's sculptures and enjoying a bird's eye view of Albuquerque.

Ooh, what a tail...

A short hike into our backyard - how it looks now...

Nectarine tree with riverbed and burried straw bale to absorb overflow water from rainbarrel. Newly seeded buffalo grass lawn in back with (struggling) bamboo.

Rainbarrel, riverbed with flagstone bridge, and flagstone path leading to harbor.

Vegetable patch.

Flagstone pathway plus arbor with bench flanked by trumpet vine and honeysuckle (to attract hummingbirds.) Note solar lights in path.

A short hike into our backyard - before picures...

Sandia 10K Trail to Del Agua Overlook

Jim and I decided on a early Sandia hike today (5/30/09) from the 10K Trail to Del Agua Overlook and back. This picture shows Del Agua Overlook from Crest Trail looking over the city of Albuquerque with Mount Taylor on the horizon. The hike was about 10 km (!) with a very modest incline. (The trail is called 10K because it roughly follows the 10,000 foot elevation contour.) Being late spring, the land was still moist and very green with abundant spring flowers.

Indian Paint Brush in bloom.

Bosque del Apache Winter Bird Viewing

On January 17, 2009, we visited Bosque del Apache, a Bird Refuge south of Socorro.The refuge covers about 57,000 acres along the Rio Grande River. With its moist bottomlands and active floodplains surrounded by arid mesas, it is home to thousands of overwintering birds. Sandhill and whooping cranes, herons, snow geese, ducks and eagles are the usual inhabitants but you may get lucky and see egrets, ibis, pelegrin facons, storks and cormorants. And would you care to know about gails, gallines, coots, stils and avocets? We got there late in the day and had the pleasure of watching the cranes and geese fly in for the night from surrounging feeding fields. And as a bonus, we got to enjoy a spectacular New Mexico sunset.

Spectacular skies at Bosque del Apache

Sunset at Bosque Del Apache