This spot is crispy as a potato chip, yet it’s still overflowing with life

When we pulled into the parking lot of today’s hike, our first sight was a Forest Service hotshot firefighting crew.

Thankfully, they were just patrolling. This time.

The last fire in David Canyon was three weeks ago. We walked through embers so fresh we could still smell them, and blackened tree limbs that glowed silver in the sun.

One canyon wall resembled an eyebrow, fire-stripped trees like sticks from an older blaze.

Yet we saw and heard more birds there than almost anywhere we’ve ever hiked. Every time we stopped to rest under a tree, we heard only two things: the wind and birds chattering to each other and us.

David Canyon sits on the edge of a residential area in the Manzanita Mountains. A couple of lucky souls live in houses perched atop the high canyon walls. As you wind your way down through the forest, killer views of the Guadalupe and Mosca peaks in the Manzanos appear. Those mountains are just 12 miles away, according to our guidebook.

The steep descent put us exactly at eye level with a pair of nuthatches as they looped around a tree trunk, chattering.

We stopped to rest when we reached the canyon floor, a meadow running both north and south.

Then a climb up through thick forest eerily spotted with burn scars. Rocky ledges crossed the trail. Two large lizards with distinctive gray stripes darted along the rock.

The climb took us to a forest road winding along the ridge. We could see the top of the opposite canyon wall. As the road grew steep and rocky, we gained an unobstructed view of the Manzanos behind us, and the Sandia foothills peeked into view in front.

The final section of this hike took us down into David Canyon again, following two rugged forest roads. Ponderosa pines towered overhead, late-afternoon light slanting through them, bird cacophony cascading down.

If you look at your feet on this hike, it’s pretty monochromatic. Dry grass lines the path; in some spots, the pine needles we sat on to rest were so dried out they were gray.

But if you look up, color saturates your vision: deep green pines wave in the wind, blue sky above, a violet-green swallow flashing overhead.

Hike length: 8 miles

Difficulty: moderate

Trail traffic: minimal

Wildlife spotted and/or heard: lizards, crows, hawk, raven, violet-green swallows, black-capped chickadees, vesper sparrows, nuthatches, hummingbirds, woodpeckers

TIP! One of the best things about this hike is that, with the extensive network of trails and well-marked forest roads in and surrounding David Canyon, you could easily change your mind en route about what you wanted to do here. This excellent route, which I would never have found otherwise, comes from Stephen Ausherman’s “60 Hikes Within 60 Miles of Albuquerque.”