The meadow sits just below 10,000 feet elevation on the Survey Trail.
Ordinary, compared to other high mountain meadows. Small. View limited to sturdy firs, spruce, and a speck of the San Pedro Mountains.
Still, you might rest here, if you’ve been walking since the Ellis trailhead.
If you rest here, you might not want to leave.
Wrens flit tree to tree, branch to branch. Two skirmish midair, spinning around each other, a whir of wings.
Hummingbirds hum.
Hawk glides low among trees, seeking the chipmunks and squirrels that have squawked at you all morning.
Smudge in the grass resolves itself: blue-gray horned lizard, dotted black.
Eventually you pull yourself away, up a steep slope, emerge into light.
A brief wrong turn brought you to this overlook. Limestone Sandia Mountain cake frosted green with aspen. Mount Taylor, 80 miles away, smudges the horizon. The city emerges from a week of wildfire smoke. Fossils whorl the stone you sit on.
A fellow hiker walks up. Chicago transplant. Blessed, she says, hustling on her mask.
You’ve lingered. You have to hurry uphill to reach the trailhead by 12:45, the appointed “if you don’t hear from me call search and rescue” time you gave your husband.
Still, you stop for a drink of water in the meadow.
The spot has no name, at least none you know.
But you won’t forget it.
Writing this, you smell fir still.
Hike length: 6 miles
Difficulty: moderate
Wildlife spotted/heard: many deer on Sandia Crest Highway, squirrels, Abert’s squirrel, chipmunks, hawk, hummingbird, horned lizard, rock wrens, mountain chickadees, grasshoppers, golden-crowned kinglets
Trail traffic: light-moderate
Woman Seeks Elevation 