December 2019 – Woman Seeks Elevation

December 29, 2019

The winter bosque unleashes a micro-sleet storm

Yep, it’s definitely sleeting.

We’re less than a quarter mile from the trailhead in the Rio Grande river bosque. Little white pellets pelt us.

Sleet and sun will trade places for this entire hike. The precipitation cycles from little white blasting caps to light droplets barely touched with ice, and back again.

We walk out on a sandy landing. The river flows fast at its edge, wind-ruffled, bolstered by snowmelt or rain further north.

Sun peeks at the trail, melts the pellets. The leaves beneath glisten.

Look closely and you can see the sleet falling!

Blasting cap of sleet on my husband’s glove

We walk up to the Montano Bridge, right into a biting west wind, for a better view of the storm. The sky’s a bruise above Rio Rancho and the Jemez. Snow blurs our view of Corrales. The curtain has dropped over the Sandias from Embudo Canyon to Placitas.

We retrace our steps to the car. It’s 45 degrees there. No precipitation has fallen.

At our house this morning, outside looked and felt uninviting on this cold, cloudy winter day. I just barely dragged myself off the couch. My husband vowed to stay inside, changing his mind at the very last minute.

We almost missed quite a show.

Hike length: 3.8 miles

Difficulty: easiest

Trail traffic: moderate

Wildlife spotted/heard: sandhill cranes, ducks, geese, sparrows, crows

Postscript: I went straight from this hike to 516 Arts’ “Species in Peril Along the Rio Grande.” I hadn’t planned it that way, but today was the last day of this stunning, sobering exhibit. I’d been to several of its events and talks, including one in the gallery, and vowed to go back when I could spend some time and really take in all the works. I probably even tracked in a little red clay and sand today, which seems appropriate. Pictured is Ruben Olguin’s “Evaporation,” a mural that depicts more than 150 endangered species in the Rio Grande Valley using earth pigments from the valley.

December 22, 2019

All the sunshine in the world: Winter solstice at Three Gun Spring

If this crossroads had a boulder to lie on, I’d be asleep in the sun.

Even sitting upright with my backpack for a cushion, my eyelids droop.

The 1,800-foot, 2-mile climb to the junction of Three Gun Spring Trail and Embudo Trail contributed. But the perfect nap conditions come from the direct sun. It pours onto this trail, this crossing, into my cells, warms me inside out.

Just as I sought on the shortest day of the year.

The hike up always makes me wonder if sun poisoning can happen when it’s 45 degrees. I roasted even in my floppy hat and long sleeves. The hoodie came off less than a mile in.

The canyon looks like an undifferentiated mass of boulders from the highway below. Birds dart among junipers in its lower reaches. As switchbacks lift you into the sky, the griddle turns on. This canyon soaks up heat and holds it.

The reward: the stone walls that stretch into the blue. The layers of mountain ranges rolling to the south. The warmth to take me all through the winter.

Just as my legs reach their limit, the junction.

Even a few steps from this crossroads, trees press in, temperature drops, snow and ice patch the trail. Every turn presents a new view of soaring stone.

Solar fortified, I descend the steep path with confidence, hips slightly ahead of my torso, heels into the earth. We pass another sun seeker lying on the hillside.

We reach the canyon’s heart again. The sun goes from blaze to glow.

“Happy solstice!” call two women on their way up.

Right behind them, a couple with hiking poles.

Someone leaving the trailhead with poles at 3:23 p.m. on the winter solstice can have only one thing in mind: watching the year’s earliest sunset from the junction.

I can’t imagine navigating down that trail at dusk, but there’s no better place to soak up every last minute of sun.

Hike length: 4.5 miles

Difficulty: Officially, moderate. This section gets a solid difficult rating in my book.

Trail traffic: moderate, but none above the junction

Wildlife spotted: pinyon jays, blue jays, hawk, robin, juniper titmouse, beetle

TIPS: To continue a theme, this is hot and rattlesnake-friendly terrain, and I don’t recommend it April-October.

December 14, 2019

Embudo Canyon from a horse’s-eye view

One can scramble up giant boulder slabs in Embudo Canyon’s throat.

Or one can make like an equine, take the Embudo Horse Bypass, and walk along ridges above the canyon.

Today we chose the latter.

Winter and the end of fall played silent tug-of-war. Clouds blanketed the foothills, cast cool light on granite and cholla. Sun bathed the valley and mesa below.

Sturdy pines, a flash of bluebird appeared in the yucca, cacti and stone.

Paths wrapped around gigantic boulders. From the ridge’s edge, we peered down on the canyon walls, stacked slabs of stone.

We took a side path up a steep ridge, gazed all the way to the Magdalena Mountains, 100 miles south. Cold wind whipped our faces. We retraced our steps and followed the bypass down to the canyon’s shelter.

I came to this trail today seeking winter’s endless sun.

But in the cool cloud light, I could see much more.

Hike length: 4.4 miles

Difficulty: moderate

Wildlife spotted/heard: bluebird, bluejay, crows, flycatchers, juniper titmice

Trail traffic: moderate (very light on the horse bypass)

December 9, 2019

Juan Tabo Canyon from the bottom up

I’ve climbed steep paths for a dramatic view into Juan Tabo Canyon.

But I’d never seen its rugged rock walls rise hundreds of feet above me.

Until yesterday.

You can get a good gander at the Sandias’ Shield, Prow and Needle from many spots near the canyon. Yesterday’s hike took us through the canyon’s less-traveled northern sections.

Down arroyos, following footprints and deer tracks. Through stands of bare trees and brush. Over damp rocks where a stream had recently flowed.

The sun and a light breeze warmed us. Still, our feet crunched snow in shady spots.

We squeezed against jagged slate canyon walls. The further south we went, the higher the rock rose above. Mountain chickadees and towhees darted from juniper to juniper.

It made me wonder if this canyon bottom would flourish green in a wet spring and summer.

Our first view into the canyon looked verdant even today, blanketed with evergreens.

The light and warmth shortened with the afternoon. Winter cloud cover built.

Time to go, taking a new view of the canyon with us.

Hike length: 6 miles

Difficulty: moderate

Trail traffic: very light

Wildlife spotted/heard: hawk, blue jays, spotted towhees, mountain chickadees, Jerusalem cricket

TIPS:

-I recommend this hike, like my other recent ones, November-March. It’s very sunny.

-This barbell-shaped route comes from Mike Coltrin’s Sandia Mountain Hiking Guide.