Golden Open Space, shapeshifter edition

One moment, sun and blue sky so intense the land’s vibrant colors must compete hard to be seen.

Clouds move over. The canyon’s deeper hues emerge, red and gold, pink and tan.

The Sandia Mountains loom beyond the canyon’s end, blurred by precipitation.

The flint-smell of rain. The first drops hit the red and blue rocks. Then fatter drops.

The curtain falls, and Golden Open Space transforms.

The place we knew before this is rocky juniper rim and wizened red canyons and sun, so much sun.

The steady rain and gray sky wash everything to rust and green. The forested hills all around the open space, usually unnoticed in the sun, emerge. Tiny clusters of wildflowers pulse yellow. Shrubs we’ve never seen in leaf here glow green.

Now it’s more than rain: tiny hail pellets, maybe, or graupel. It pings cool off my arms.

I’m both focused in the scene around me and in my head. Worried the mountain bike trail we’re walking on will turn to muck. Worried I’ll get too chilled with the temperature drop, which hit just after I ditched my hoodie for a light cotton T-shirt and copiously applied sunscreen.

But I see sun and some blue sky over the rim. The tiny hail abates. The rain slows to a light mist, droplets catching the light.

On the rim, bruise-gray clouds enter a dramatic duel with late-afternoon rays.

We scramble up a knoll to see the light and shadow on the mountains and plains. All three of us aim our cameras at once, even my husband, now wielding a smartphone after a lifetime of flip phone ownership.

We spot wildflowers as we walk back through the juniper hills: Indian paintbrush, Apache plume. Yellow and purple, red and white. We’re sure we hear thunder in the canyon behind us.

As the rain transformed the land, it transformed me. I’d clenched my teeth so much this week that my face throbbed. That pain began to abate, replaced by a throbbing in my feet that would remind me for hours to come: I’d had an experience.

Hike length: 7 miles

Difficulty: moderate

Trail traffic: none

Wildlife spotted: butterflies, crows, vulture, deer crossing the road as we drove away