Day Three: Albuquerque
An exciting adventure happens everyday. Something new to explore, something new to see. The grandness of the large landscapes and the unforgettable views are inspiring. Living moment to moment, capturing the essence of the new details is keeping my mind active and engaged. Remembering to relax and recharge is hard given all of the wonderful sights- your brain and eyes want to take it all in!
Awaken to another beautiful day, Ella and I watch the sunrise from the corner of our hotel window. Despite overlooking the parking lot for the airport, we can still see the beautiful snow capped mountains, and watching the sun rise certainly helps the soul!
We venture out for a morning adventure while we wait for our friends to join us- their flight the day before got a bit messed up due to winds in Denver, their connecting airport. So, we had the morning to do a little sightseeing. Given that our favorite thing so far has been the mountains, we headed to the Sandia Peak Sky Tram to really get on top of the ridge to see what we could see. The tram ride was fabulous- 15 minutes waitching the landscape turn from desert to mountain climate zones, watching the rock and dusty earth turn to a lush forest and then at the top, the trees start to lean in towards the mountain, their trunks knarly and their spiny pines all pointing away from the wind. Supposedly the wind gusts can be over 60 miles an hour near the summit and they actually weigh the tram with a water bladder and a large steel metal plate to keep it level and as it transports its sightseers up and down the mountain.
At the top, an icy walkway leads to an overlook. One trail goes along the peak of the summit towards an old abandoned house made of stone, the other trail goes along the peak in a southerly direction. Both were closed as they were covered in snow and very slushy, muddy and slick in places too.
But the view from the top was amazing- looking down at the city on one side, and down the other towards the mountain ranges to the West all snow peaked and a little hazy from some left over low clouds. (And by low, I really mean high- the height of the mountains is just amazing!)
Our afternoon adventure took us to the other side of Albuquerque to the Pertroglyph National Monument. There we took a 3.5 mile hike with our friends, Jen and Kenny and their family of littles, alongside a volcanic ridge with piles of black volcanic rock. The short summit of volcanic rock contains within it hidden pictures carved into the rock- petroglyphs! It was a race to see who would spot one first- it was me! I am not sure what I won, but Kenny assured me there would be a prize to the first person who spotted the art!
The long winding trail paralleled the short slope of black rocks, so the left sides of our bodies got a good ol’ sunburn as our heads and bodies were slightly turned towards the right to scan the hill for art. Don’t worry, we had some sunblock on, but unlike the sun at home, this sun is closer to our bodies here and I was not anticipating this much result.
This petroglyph is my favorite. Two sheep. Kenny shared with me that this particular carving is over 500 years old. The native people were watching new comers to their lands bring animals that they have never seen before. These sheep must have been amazing to them. Much like the scenery that we are taking in that is so different from the Northeast, the native people must have been awed by the new sights they were seeing as people from around the world landed. This art depicts a number of sheep grazing. It is very peaceful to me. Plus, we love sheep on The Grassy Knoll Farm!
Ella, the scientist, drew the petroglyphs into her notebook as notes for her school project. She was thrilled to be pointing out the art, and found many of them all by herself. She then had to help us old people to see them. It was quite comical to watch her trying to point them out to us. On the pathway around the summit, you are a number of feet away from the art, and so spotting them becomes a game, we were pointing and jumping and yelling- great fun! Ella might be embarrassed by all of our shenanigans but it was delightful seeing what we could see. Despite Kenny having already visited a number of times, we found some petroglyphs he had never seen before!
The landscape is just so remarkable. So different from home. It may be what is making this trip so amazing. The new sights are a feast for your eyes and brains. It actually makes you feel like being creative, doing what you love to do that brings out those creative juices- you can feel the energy of seeing new sights, being in new places, seeing things differently- connects us to what makes us happy and fulfilled.
The local flora and fauna also have me intrigued…
Picture number one: Common name: Scorpion weed. Family Hydrophyllacaea, Genus Phacelia, Species Phacelia integrifolia. Small purple or white flowers, leaves almost look like the leaves of sedum plants. I couldn’t get close enough to touch them to see if they were more leaf like or more sedum like.
Picture number two: commone name: Tree Cholla. Family Cactaceae, Genus Cylindropuntia, Species Cylindropunita imbricata. It looks like canes with little yellow flowers at the ends. Looks fuzzy, but is most definitely in the cactus family, hence that fur is really tiny spikes.
Picture number three: The small prints of a little animal running through the sand. These tracks look like a little bird, but we also saw telltale prints of little mice and some tail drags of little lizards.
Picture number four: The sandy path along the summit which we traveled to see the petroglyphs.
Till the next adventure,
Be well,
Teresa