Gold coins shiver in the wind.
So do I.
The aspens on the Sandia Crest slopes usually glow yellow the first Saturday in October.
Today one yellow patch blankets the mountain. Around it, leaves have tipped past yellow to gold, or fallen, leaving trunks naked.
Who knows why? Maybe that bizarre freeze just after Labor Day hastened the leaves’ change. Or maybe the lack of anything else resembling seasonal temperatures, or precipitation, left the aspens confused about when to do their thing.
It still looks the way fall looks up here: blue, green and gold.
Clear above and below. Beyond that, haze from fires a thousand miles away. It’s begun to feel like a permanent condition.
Most days, the fire hydrant of Cabezon Peak would loom large from here. Today it’s a shadow of a thumb.
It still feels the way fall feels up here: warm and cold, light and shadow.
But no year, no month, no day is just an anomaly anymore.
The changes in our climate reshape even a world of sun and stone.
Hike length: 6 miles
Route: Survey Trail to 10K Trail overlook
Difficulty: moderate
Trail traffic: light-moderate
Wildlife spotted/heard: deer and chipmunk on Crest Highway; squirrels, dove, jays, crow, hawk, dark-eyed junco, dusky flycatchers, flickers
Woman Seeks Elevation 