Three hikes with someone I love reminded me why ABQ is home

It’s been a rough year already, Albuquerque, in a lot of ways. Like many places, the issues we face here are deep, and they can feel insurmountable.

This week I got the chance to see my city through fresh eyes, and to remember why I fell in love with it and why I stay.

My sister visited from New Orleans this week. She wanted to experience Albuquerque the way my husband and I do. That meant hikes.

That meant getting up as early as we could to visit Elena Gallegos Open Space in the Sandia foothills before the sun pouring down on it grew too hot to enjoy.

That meant watching a frog bask in the tiny wetland on Cottonwood Springs Trail, interrupting a lizard doing his daily push-ups on a stump, crossing bone-dry arroyos and talking about what it looks like when they flood.

That meant getting up as early as we could again the next day to visit the bosque. It meant watching blue dragonflies dart by. It meant stopping in our tracks to watch three robust-looking coyotes lope toward the jetty jacks, and talking with people on horseback who’d been close enough to see a fourth. It meant walking out onto a drying riverbed to see the Rio Grande. It meant stopping by the visitor center to see 17 turtles chilling in a wetland.

After we took my sister to the airport this morning, my husband and I squeezed in a North Valley ditch walk before the afternoon heat settled in.

I stalked ducks with my camera; every time I got close to them, they flapped out of the ditch to put some distance between us, showering me with water. I texted my sister a picture of the ducks.

We’ve made our home in a hard place. All the local landscape and food and art and architecture and culture and history we soaked up this week doesn’t change that.

It reconnected me to why we do it.

Hike 1: Elena Gallegos loop

Distance: 1.2 miles

Wildlife spotted: lizards, frog, bluejays, butterflies

Trail traffic: moderate

Difficulty: easy

 

Hike 2: Bosque loop (Bosque Loop Trail + River Loop Trail)

Distance: 2.3 miles

Wildlife spotted: coyotes, lizards, dragonflies, butterflies, turtles, hummingbirds, geese

Trail traffic: popular

Difficulty: easy

 

Hike 3: North Valley ditch loop

Distance: 2.2 miles

Wildlife seen or heard: donkeys, peacocks, ducks, lizards, butterflies, grackle, doves, horses

Trail traffic: light

Difficulty: easy