New Mexico with Julie - A Hike at Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National MOonument

New Mexico has  a lot of relatively small, scenic/historic national monuments. One of them, near Albuquerque, is the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument. This is in a volcanic area that has been visited by people for at least 4000 years. It is the historic lands of the Cochiti people who still perform religious ceremonies there. It is a day use area with short trails, although some are very steep.

Julie and I got to to the monument mid afternoon and rushed to begin hiking. We hike separately so I don't slow her down and I can stop and take pictures without feeling guilty. I was blown away by the "tents" - cones of volcanic material that has weathered into the cones. My favorite part of the hike was going through a slot canyon. But I didn't get all the way to the mesa before I had to turn around. I definitely plan to go back and enjoy more of this monument.

I took many pictures of these cactus. I love all the colors they have

Some of the tents - which are shaped like teepees and range from shorter than people to huge room sized rocks

A little "tent village"

Another dramatic view of the tents

Just glorious

Getting closer

Still  out in the open

But soon the trail entered a slot canyon

There were places I could look out at nearby formations

The formations looked like they had been poured as semi solids and then hardened before they could flatten out

My camera could see slight color variations in the rock

Light painting

One of the very tight spots

The light was already going as I hiked deeper into the canyon

The late sun added its own colors

I'll be visiting friends in the Houston area when this blog publishes. I had a lovely birding outing while in Corpus Christi as well as a a few good visits with friends in addition to staying with one of my best friends.

New Mexico With Julie - Sandia Tramway

October 26, 2019

I thought I would have four days to play by myself before picking up Julie, but most of that time turned out to be lost due to the cold weather and snow. Then I took most of a day to make a two hour trip to Bandelier National Monument, so I had to go retrieve Julie from Albuquerque before I saw much of the park.

I planned to show Julie Sandia Tramway and the hiking trails in the mountains as soon I she got off the plane. That al went well and we had a good time on the tram and hiking trails. However, the last time, I was able to take pictures from the tram. It was so crowded, I couldn't move from my original spot, so didn't get some of the most exciting pictures.

View from the tram

Julie and Albuquerque

View from the trail

A slightly closer view

Julie 

The tramway building and apparatus

What carries and drives the tram

Here comes our tram to leave

This was the first half day of several adventures. Stay tuned.

On a personal note, I'm almost home. I spent two nights and a day and a half at Gardner State Park in Texas, where I met my daughter and grandson.  Now we are both headed to her house, but I stopped to put up a blog before I crash.

A Hike in the Enchanted Forrest

Wednesday, Hulin and I, who are spending ten days together in New Mexico, did a little hike in the Enchanted Forest, a winter cross-country ski area and a summer hike and bike area.

First we hiked up a trail to see Wheeler Peak - at 13,161 feet, it's the highest peak in New Mexico. We were hiking at between 9000 and 10,000 feet. I hadn't felt the hike the first day we were here, but I could definitely feel that this one was high.

Hulin

View of Wheeler Peak.

 I liked the hike most for the wildflowers.  It's sure fun to climb up mountains and found flowers still blooming that have gone to seed thousands of feet lower.

I loved the way nature was re-purposing this fallen tree stump.

The roses were small but the rose hips on them were large and numerous.

While we were off the trail, sitting on a log eating lunch, a string of horses and riders came past.

Hulin lost both his boot soles on the hike.

This is the first time I've been in this area and the first time Hulin has been here when there hasn't been snow. Everything looks very different to him.