Sunday, March 17, 2013

Hiking Guiterrez Canyon

 

One of our favorite local trails is only about 15 minutes from our house and is located in a beautiful, natural area called The John A. Milne/Guiterrez Canyon Open Space in Cedar Crest. When my sons have guitar lessons, after they’re done, we sometimes go next door to the trail head parking area and begin our hike.

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And there’s a Hitching Rail, too!

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The main loop trail is only 2.8 miles long. We took our GPS with us when we hiked it last week.

Guiterrez Canyon Hike


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We took a detour to the gravel road that connects the lower loop trail to the ridge trails.

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We also did some scouting of the upper ridge trails by hiking up that quiet, country, gravel road to the connector trail. But once we reached the top of the ridge, we didn’t go any further because we didn’t have enough time to explore those trails up there. I hope to ride some of those trails on horseback in the near future.

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Speaking of horseback, one of the reasons I thought it would be fun to hike this loop trail with my kids, is that I had invited one of my riding friends to go with me and ride the very next day! I loved the idea of a back-to-back visit, and my kids and I hadn’t hiked it in almost a year, and I wanted to see how the trail looked since we had gotten rain and snow just a week earlier.

This is where the trail begins, after you hike down the hill from the trail head.

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There were a few muddy areas, but nothing too slippery and deep, so I was excited to come back with my Apache mare the next day to ride her with my friend, Barb.

But first I hiked the trail with my awesome kids (and our little dogs, too!).

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We had a great hike and we were out for a couple hours, so when I offered to take my kids to our favorite local burger place afterwards for some delicious New Mexico Green Chile Cheeseburgers……..they were ecstatic!

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What a great way to spend the day, hiking with my kids on beautiful trails out in nature together. And followed up with a great meal to boot!

                             Life Is Good!



8 comments :

Dan and Betty said...

Chile cheeseburgers - best part of any hike.

Dan

clairz said...

You've made such a wonderful life for your kids. They are looking so grown-up!

Sherry Sikstrom said...

what wonderful memories you are building with your kids!

baystatebrumby said...

You do have kids thatolook like they are a lot of fun to be with. Just the fact that they will hike with and take guitar lessons must prove they are very cool. Love that kid #3 was a girl. Plus you ride horses and have cute little doggies. I'm lovin it!

strivingforsavvy said...

Sounds like a perfect day!

WishIHadAHorsey said...

"Life is good" AMEN!

Eggs In My Pocket said...

What a wonderful place to go hiking. Your children will always remember these times with you!

The Equestrian Vagabond said...

ahhhh, i can almost smell the forest!
- The Equestrian Vagabond