10K trail, Sandia Mountains, NM, 8/30/17

Wednesday NM Mountain Club hike.  Hiked 10K trail to the Osha Loop intersection and hiked back: 4.1 miles, ~890 feet elevation. 

 Small group today, as several Wednesday regulars opted to join a hike to Nambe Lake near Santa Fe.

End of summer brings a profusion of wild flowers in bloom (see above) and fungi at their best.

Picacho Peak, Santa Fe Canyon Preserve, NM, 8/6/17

 Drove to Santa Fe on Saturday afternoon to go to the opera that evening. Had a wonderful tailgate supper before the start of Donizetti's Lucia de Lammamoor. If you are wondering what we are dinning on, it was a ww pasta with tomatoes and basil from the garden cooked the previous evening and topped with leftover Shushaka we had served to guests for brunch that morning.

The next morning we drove to the very end of Canyon Road to the Santa Fe Canyon Preserve. The trail head starts at the entrance of the preserve and winds through a forest of pinion pine dotted with pink quartzite boulders (see last picture.)  Views of the Sandias to the south.

Picacho Peak - 8577 ft elevation. Walked up to the peak, then made a loop via Castle Rock back to our starting point; 5 miles, ~1650 ft elevation.

The maze of trails turned out easy to navigate thanks to the meticulously marked trails.  Each trail crossing has a number with a map above it, indicating its location. Impossible to get lost!

Tecolote Trail, Sandia Mountains, NM, 8/2/17

Wednesday Mountain Club hike.  Short hike with great views (~ 3 miles round trip; elevation ~ 500 feet.)  Special for Jim and me, as it is the very first hike we did together when we started dating, more than 10 years ago. At the time, I was searching for a class 1 hike I could lead for the Mountain Club and I asked Jim to help me scout it out.

 Detour to entrance of old mine.

Wednesday hikers waiting to take a closer peek at the mine entrance.

This was the hike with views! After a few switchbacks, the trail follows the ridge line with views of the highway and ski area.

Engineer Mountain Overlook, San Juan National Forest, CO, 7/9/17

Fit in a hike on our way from Durango to Ridgeway, CO. An easy 3 miles to the base of Engineer Mountain, above. Trailhead is 36 miles north of Durango, on US Highway 505, at Coal Bank Pass. 

 We started by walking through a meadow covered knee-high with wildflowers,

then meandered through spruce-fir forest ......

 and finally arrived at tree line, where we were rewarded by the most awesome
360 degree mountain views!

Columbine all along the way.

FaultyTrail, Sandia Mountains, NM, 7/2/17

A trail with three names! In addition to Faulty, the trail is also named Mystery trail (because of its unknown origins) and Diamond trail because of the diamond-shaped trail blazed carved into the trees (see 4th photo below.)  Walked ~6 miles with an elevation gain ~900 feet. 

This was not a hike with views, so we spent time looking for wonderous expressions of nature, such as these fungi on the tree above, 

 and branches that looked like roots.

Mini Wednesday NM Mountain Club hike, NM, 5/31/17

Penstemon in bloon.

Five-mile hike in the foothills of the Sandias. Started at the Spain trail head and meandered over to the Elena Gallegos Open Space.  By that time it had started to rain and lighting threatened at the horizon.

McPhee Overlook trail, Dolores, CO, 5/28/17

Joined a friend in Dolores, Colorado, for a day hike, which was supposed to be a white water rafting trip down the lower Dolores river.  About a week ago we got word that the planned water release from the McPhee reservoir into lower Dolores was cancelled. Not enough water so no rafting trip. Instead our friend, Brenda, who lives in Dolores, took us for a hike along the reservoir. 

Distance: 7.7 miles. Elevation: ~ 1060 ft. 

 
 Dolores water treatment plant and La Plata mountain range in background.

Plenty of wildlife on this hike: rattlesnakes in the rocky section of the trail - see sign above. No, we did not encounter any today :)  Above, squirrel on the lookout: A most unusual sight! A bird of prey was flying overhead and we wondered if it was an eagle until Brenda spotted several sunning on a log: turkey vultures!

 Jim remarked on the varying terrain:  rocky section, shady forest and open meadow.

Cozy lunch spot.

Cozy lunch spot.