Sunlight and snow play tricks on Tram Trail

Watercolor-blue thumbs smudge the sky. Weather surrounds us.

Cool wind puffs as we ascend the boulder garden that is the Tram Trail.

Battle-gray clouds tuck into the crevasses of the Sandia peaks. Flurries dust us, then disappear. Sunlight washes the plains and the city below.

I’d forgotten you could see houses (ah, the wildland-urban interface) for almost this entire hike. It’s easy to forget that and remember only boulders nearly as large as those houses.

Under cloud, chill sets in. Sun emerges to bake a long climb.

One more ridge and I’m sure we’ll reach the high, rocky meadow I wanted to explore last time.

We gain the ridge. The cloud show dances on the Shield and the Needle. Late-afternoon rays warm the walls of Juan Tabo Canyon.

The meadow is nowhere. I spot a hill of rock two ridges away. I think the meadow must be near there. My husband doesn’t.*

Despite the ridge’s loveliness, it’s wind-whipped and cold in shadow. We can’t linger.

On our way down, something coalesces from the weather-smudges on the horizon. Wisps of white levitate between us and the volcanoes on the West Mesa.

Rain? Snow? Virga (precipitation that evaporates before it hits the ground)? Sun rays pulling a fast one?

I watch it nearly all the way down the mountain, but I can’t identify it.

As soon as we get in our car and pull onto Tramway, it’s gone.

Or is it?

Hike length: 5.5 miles

Difficulty: moderate

Wildlife spotted: jays, crows, chickadees

Trail traffic: light

*My husband was right. The meadow was on the Foothills Trail, not the Tram Trail.