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.

Hoover Dam, Nevada, 2/16/2012

On our second day in Las Vegas we rented a car and visited Hoover Dam, Lake Mead and the Valley of Fire. We arrived at the Valley of Fire State Park at closing time because we were so fascinated by the Hoover Dam that we spend three hours touring it. Dam serves several purposes: it prevents flooding of lower-lying farm lands from Colorado to California, and provides water and (clean!) electricity for 7 states.

View from the Dam overlooking the Colorado River and the bypass bridge that was built later to take some of the traffic away from the dam. At the bottom is one of the hydroelectric powerplant wings. Building the dam started in 1931 and was finished in 1935. The construction provided work for thousands of workers during the depression years. The dam is 221 meters high and 379 meters wide. Width at the bottom is 660 meters. Before the dam could be built, the river had to be diverted. For that two tunnels were dug along side the river. Once the river was diverted, the mud and silt on the riverbed had to be removed until the bedrock was reached. Interlocking concrete blocks were poured to form the dam with rods inserted to allow for a water cooling system. The guide explained that if the dam was poured in one block, it would have taken 100 years for such a large mass of concrete to cool down. Total of concrete used: 2.6 million cubic meters!

Parking structure, visitor center and electric power lines.

Lake Mead created by the dam. Intake tower in the foreground. There are two towers that guide the lake water to the hydroelectric generators.

Winged statues in an eagle like stance guarding the entrance to the dam. Very art deco... and so appropriate for this grandiose project.

Inside view of the generators. Everything was gleaming clean. A well-run operation. The floors were 1930's terazzo marble!

Two more pictures of the powerplant wings with electric cables carrying electricity out of the canyon.

Hoover Dam is a National Historic Landmark and one of America's Seven Modern Civil Engineering Wonders.

Indoor Skydiving, Las Vegas, Nevada, 2/15/2012

Jim found this brochure promising an indoor skydiving experience. Of course, we had to check it out. Here is Jim suiting up for the flight.

Marlin and Jim, ready for take off...

On your marks, get set, go...

Taking off....

A little higher...

Flying away...

Marlin's turn... flying with the instructor.

What a fun experience. Would you do it?

Jemez Falls, Jemez Mountains, 2/5/2012

We decided to go snow shoeing at the Valle Caldera in the Jemez mountains today. Just about 5 miles from the Valle the road turned icy and we had to turn around. Thinking this was a lost day for hiking, we passed a Jemez Falls campground and Jim remembered that it the falls are only about 1/2 a mile walk from the end of the campground. The day was overcast and what you cannot see is a very fine snow that came down all day. This is the entrance to the campground with cattle guard in front.

We snowshoed about a mile to the campground, then about a mile to reach the end of the campground and 1/4 mile to the fall.

While not clear from this picture, the falls are large. What you see is a wall of ice with water dripping in a pool at the bottom of the falls. Although it was a grey day with the sun trying to peak out from time to time looking like a foggy moon, we ended up with a great snowshoeing day.

Piedra Lisa Trail, Sandia Mountains, 1/29/2012

The Piedra Lisa trail start just north of the La Luz trail, follows Juan Tabo Canyon, climbs up to Rincon Ridge. and then meanders down to Placitas. We went up to Juan Tabo ridge, had lunch and returned, four miles in all, elevation close to 2000 feet.

It is one our favorite hikes because of the panoramic views of the western face of the Sandias.

View to the east. Plan was to hike some of Rincon Spur Trail once we got to the ridge but there was too much snow.

Piedra Lisa means "smooth rock" in Spanish. The trail probably got its name from the crazy rock formations along the trail.