What we found when we were looking for something else entirely at Golden Open Space

We had our minds set on one thing: the magical mystery slot canyon.

It had tantalized us at the end of an already-trippy arroyo hike at Golden Open Space in the East Mountains. I didn’t have the stamina to tackle it then, but neither my husband nor I had forgotten it.

So we headed out to Golden today. It’s a city of Albuquerque open space way down a long, winding road lined with spindly, naked junipers that look almost like palm trees.

First, a mesa with great views of the Ortiz Mountains and the east side of the Sandias. Then the descent to a rust-red trail that rolls up hills and across arroyos.

One of those arroyos had led us to the magical slot canyon. We couldn’t remember which one. We decided to follow the trail to the end of the route in our guidebook, thinking it would be close to the slot. We found lichen ranging from dusty blue to turquoise to chartreuse on the rock.

The trail emptied into a wide arroyo where, almost immediately, we discovered a natural spring that flowed for hundreds of yards. It bathed the rock below deep purple and brown and brick red. At one pool, we found a few deer tracks.

We followed the arroyo to its end, where it branched into another wide arroyo. A single huge cottonwood, leaves blazing yellow, stood against the arroyo wall.

We’d gone a long way, so we walked back up the arroyo, stopping to rest on a rock ledge. Sun poured down from a nearly cloudless sky as we sat on cool rock and listened to the wind and the birds.

 

Back at the trail junction, we took a spur we’d visited a long time ago. It led us to an overlook above a dramatic, narrow red-walled canyon, but it wasn’t the canyon we had on our minds.

We soaked up the sun and the breeze and the birds and the scents for hours. It was a wonderful way to spend a late-fall day.

Back at the car, though, we both admitted that we’d been distracted from what was around us by our disappointment at not finding that canyon.

I’d tried to just forget about it, but I’d carried that longing with me even amid all the experiences of the day.

The heart wants what it wants.

Hike length: 8.5 miles

Difficulty: moderate

Trail traffic: light

Wildlife spotted/heard: robin, vulture, canyon wrens, butterflies, grasshoppers, deer tracks