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.
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.
Woman Seeks Elevation 