Winter comes to Embudito Canyon

I peer through filigree.

Snow balances, fluffy and gleaming, on a tree branch just above the spring.

Silence and white reign, 24 hours after a dust storm that, at nightfall, transformed to drop five inches of snow in the Sandia foothills.

Embudito Canyon casts wonders even when it’s not covered in snow, like this spring that trickles between boulders. I want to climb more of the layers of rock, see what’s tucked under the snow up there. Snow-bewitched, I begin to try, but I know it’s unsafe, and I stop. Ice and slush don’t mix with the boulders’ smooth, sloping surfaces. I forgot to bring my microspikes today, which puts the rest of the canyon out of reach.

We arrived at the spring much sooner than I expected.

We both could have sworn there were  two miles of open canyon before the bouldering began. It just feels that way on a warm day in full sun.

We retrace our steps and decide to take the actual trail.

Yep, on our previous visits to Embudito, we mistook the throat of the canyon for the trail (judging from the footsteps, we’re not alone.) Somehow the little brown “trail” sign caught our attention today.

The path climbs the rocky canyon wall and somehow maintains a manageable angle (much more so than the nearby trail where I fell on cactus and mooned our great city). The sun warms this path and lots of feet travel it, so it’s mostly clear of ice. We gain altitude. Below, the well-trod path into the canyon’s mouth gleams like a road. Snow blankets boulders and cacti.

We climb until the path ahead turns steep and snowy enough that I don’t feel descending it would be safe. Damn forgotten microspikes. I’m sure that around that steep bend, I could peer down into that nook of canyon we didn’t quite reach. But not today.

Back at the bottom, we explore the wildland-urban interface, clusters of homes on one side, snowy, rocky wilderness on the other.

Everything, natural and unnatural, looks different, transformed by this winter’s abundance.

Hike length: 4.8 miles

Difficulty: moderate

Wildlife spotted: canyon wrens

Trail traffic: moderate