Sandia Crest Solar Eclipse Party

 

Before I share about the trail ride I took with my friend, I really am excited to share how my 3 kids and I celebrated the Annular “Ring of Fire” Solar Eclipse on Sunday evening!!

We decided to go with some of our friends from my twin sons’ Boy Scout Troop, to watch the Solar Eclipse from the top of the Sandia Mountains, just above and east of Albuquerque.

Since we live on the east side (or what we locals call “the green side”) of the Sandia Mountains, this beautiful and wild natural resource is basically in our backyard. And because our house is already above 7,000 ft, getting to the top of the Sandias only requires a 20-30 minute drive to reach Sandia Crest at 10, 678 ft elevation.

This is a photo I took on Sunday, of the Sandia Crest House, the tallest point of the Sandia Mountains.

We were expecting there to be a ton of traffic, but were pleasantly surprised not to find the hordes of people that we had been warned about by the news and some of our friends. My guess is that there was probably only several hundred people up there to view the Solar Eclipse on Sunday evening. Yes, the small main parking area beside the Sandia Crest House was full, but we were able to park on the side of the road, just a short distance down from the Sandia Crest House, and just walk up to the top in less than 15 minutes.

At the very top are also, the Radio Towers, which can be seen from Albuquerque, and are planted like tall metallic trees.

The Viewing Platform on Sandia Crest was pretty crowded, but me, my kids, and the friends we drove with up to the top, decided to just hike a bit of a ways south on the Crest Trail until the people thinned out and we had a lot of space and quiet to ourselves.

There was plenty of room on top to spread out and have some personal space.

The views up there are incredible, even despite the smoke and haze from the fires burning in Arizona.

 

And we had front row seats!

 

We could also see the Sandia Crest House north of us, near the Radio Towers, as we sat along the top of the Sandia Mountains.

 

Our dogs, Mustang Sally the Chihuahua, and Dobbie Girl, the Chiweenie, came along, too. They love going everywhere we go, especially on a beautiful hike on the top of a mountain. I think I was a little surprised, but definitely pleasantly surprised, at how many other people brought along their dogs to watch the Annular Solar Eclipse, too.

Me and my dogs, Sally and Dobbie preparing to watch the Annular Solar Eclipse!

Of course, once we pulled out our Solar Eclipse Viewing Glasses, I had to take lots of silly photos to have as special keepsakes from such a special and auspicious occasion!

My son, Jackson.

My son, Jeremiah.

And my daughter, Jenna.

And our friend Tom and his son D.

 

While we watched the beginning of the Solar Eclipse, basically the partial eclipse with the moon taking a chunk out of the sun little by little…which was just as amazing, we were entertained by several Hang Gliders who were also there to watch the Solar Eclipse, but from a very unique vantage point!

 

In this photo, if you look closely, you can see the Rio Grande River, which flows straight from Colorado, through Albuquerque on it’s way to Mexico and Texas. 

This guy was soaring right above us…probably about 10,700 ft high!

My Dobbie girl enjoyed watching the Hang Gliders, too.

It seemed to take such a long time for the moon to make it’s way across the sun, but when it finally reached the center, a huge cheer went up all along the top of the Sandia Mountains.

The excitement was contagious, knowing we were all there together, wearing our silly-looking, specially-treated Solar Eclipse Safety Glasses as we all viewed such an auspicious and unique phenomenon from such a beautiful location!

(Our friend Tom, my son Jackson, and Tom’s son D)

And I was even able to capture it on film with my Canon PowerShot SX110 IS. Zoomed without a filter:

And with a filter (I just used my own $1.50 Solar Eclipse Glasses, nothing fancy at all.):

And I even had some fun playing with the Solar Eclipse and tried sweeping my camera back and forth. And this is what my little point and shoot camera captured:

 

Pretty cool, huh?

 

My daughter Jenna was pretty amazed at the sight of the Ring of Fire Solar Eclipse. She was so quiet and focused…which is very unlike her as she loves to talk.

Jeremiah became philosophical and had some very deep thoughts and astute observations to make about the wonders of it all.

As we sat and watched the moon sliding ever so slowly up and over the sun, our friend Tom, the leader of my twin sons’ Boy Scout Troop, and the friend we rode with to the Sandia Crest, took a photo of me, taking a photo of him. Pretty funny!

And my son Jeremiah picked up my camera as the sun was setting, and I was mesmerized still watching the Solar Eclipse, as the moon slipped over the top left corner of the sun, and he snapped this photo of me. I just love it, don’t you?  

I hope my kids remember this amazing day for their entire lives, because I know that I will. It is absolutely in my Top Ten List of My Most Favorite and Once-in-a-Lifetime Experiences!!

An Update for the Family

Most of my posts seem to be about all of our critters, with a few scattered here and there, of my 3 kidlets. I started this blog (and my original blog) over 5 years ago mostly for keeping a journal and for sharing updates with friends and family from out of state. I’m pretty sure the critter posts are not as well received by my Dad and Stepmom as are the posts that contain photos and updates of Jax, Jem and Jen.
So, since it’s been a while, here’s a post for the Grandparents so they can have a little peek into what we’ve been up to.
(Note: If looking at lots of photos of someone else’s kids is not your cup of tea, then you’ll probably want to stop reading……..now.) 
Jax and Jem had one of their best bud’s Chad over for an awesome fun sleep-over to celebrate his birthday and then went over to Chad’s house for a big co-ed birthday party.
(I told them to act silly, but instead it looks like they all have to go to the bathroom)

We all went Letterboxing one afternoon, after picking up Ranchman John at the airport and found 4 Letterboxes around Albuquerque. We had a great time hiking and just hanging out together. It was fun to visit Tingley Beach again. Hard to believe we used to live right across the road from these little lakes, at The Beach Apartments, over 19 years ago. Where has the time gone?
(And how is that I can buy pants that fit my sons and then just a month later they are already looking too short? Jax and Jem are already over 6’ tall and tower over me and won’t be 15yrs old until February. Quit growing already, ok?!)

I took the kidlets ice skating recently with our homeschool group. Jen was too afraid of the slippery ice (I don’t blame her) but the boys both had a great time, although it sure is cold in the ice skating rink.
 

Since we were there during the week, our group basically had the entire huge place to ourselves.

I was almost wishing I had donned some skates myself, but my knee still isn’t always reliable and sometimes gives out on me. But Jax and Jem skated for about 2 hours with some of their friends.

It’s a pretty neat Ice Skating Rink nestled into the foothills of the Sandia Mountains, right below the Tram. There’s two separate ice rinks connected by two tunnels. And they’ve got several Ice Hockey Club Teams that practice and compete there, and while we were there we got to watch several figure skaters practicing. They were really good! I like the fun decor, too.



While Jen and I sipped hot cocoa, Jax and Jem seemed to have a good time out there on the ice.
 

Jen is still very active in her Girl Scout Troop. In fact she participated in our Troop’s Bridging Ceremony last month and is now an official Brownie. (Sorry no photos. I forgot my camera, but I’m hoping some other Moms will share the ones they took with with me)
And Jax and Jem are active in their Boy Scout Troop and are quickly moving up in rank advancement. They have been busy studying and attending classes to complete several of the Eagle Scout Merit Badges. Their Troop’s Court of Honor is next week and they are very excited and I am very proud of them. (I’ll try to remember to take some photos)
Jen, Jem and I went with our homeschool group last week to play some indoor miniature golf. The owner was homeschooled and was so happy to have us there that she gave us all pizza and drinks for free. She also let us play golf in the dark, which was really cool!
(Ice Hockey on Hole #11)

Jax stayed home because he was feeling a little under the weather. I think he was concerned that we’d be playing outside, but he needn’t of worried because, although it was only 25F degrees and snowy at home, down in Albuquerque it was in the 40F’s and completely snow-less. Besides we were playing indoors anyway.
It was too bad, because one of his best friends, Bri was there, and the place had WII. Bri had to settle for Twin B to hang out with this time.
 

Jen watched some Kung Fu Panda after we finished our 18 Holes.
 

And we had a great time playing miniature golf together. Jen kept asking me to take lots of photos, which was quite challenging to do in the dark room.
But here’s a few (or more) to share:

Jem is always so good with Jen. They are very close.

Such a nice lion to give rides to visitors.



New Mexico Golf Sharks are very dangerous.


Jen really liked this race track obstacle.


This was my favorite hole for it’s creativity.

Another safe rattlesnake to visit with.

A lot of thought went into making each obstacle.

The castle and dragon in the moat was very cute and fun.

That windmill spins and is difficult to get the ball inside the doorway. But Jen did it! Jem had to go around. lol!

I thought this picture was cool with how it picked up the spinning of the windmill and made it look solid.

You make the 18th Hole and a little train went around a track among a village of cute houses. Choo Choo!

This is going to be a very busy week!
This week Jen has her Girl Scout Christmas Party/Cookie Baking Party. That same night, Jax and Jem have their Boy Scout Meeting. Later this week we’re all going to the Albuquerque Bio Park’s River of Lights display at the Botanic Gardens with friends. Jen has her Music Class and I’ll be attending my Homeschool Mom’s Christmas Luncheon at the end of the week and the boys have their Patrol Leader Training over the weekend. And then there’s the Boy Scout Court of Honor this weekend, too.
Thankfully the following week, the week before Christmas, will be much quieter and less scheduled. This week promises to be the storm before the calm.
And speaking of storms, we’ve got another one coming on Tuesday with predictions of it dumping another 5”-10” of snow on top of all the snow we still have on the ground from last week’s previous snow storms that left us with 15” of the white stuff. Oh Joy!
And to add insult to injury, our roof is leaking in two places and more snow is just going to make it worse. The boys and I are going to try and patch it up tomorrow, but there is a lot of ice up there to deal with. And something else with bad timing……the washing machine. I’ve been without one for two weeks now after ours died one day. Not fun. And with Ranchman John working in Phoenix for 7-14 days at a time, all this stuff can be very overwhelming.
One positive thing is that the kidlets and I did manage to get the Christmas Tree and decorations up on Sunday.

The sparkling colorful lights, although beautifully festive, don’t help get my mind off of the fact that I’ve not gotten any Christmas shopping done yet. Sigh.

Heron Lake Camping Trip

 

Our exploration of Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch were only a side dish to the main course of Heron Lake.

We were to meet up with the twinlings’ Boy Scout Troop on Friday afternoon and spend the weekend camping, hiking, swimming, canoeing, and kayaking.

I got lost up near Tierra Amarilla, which is very unlike me, but it’s totally my fault because, while I did glance at the State Park map online, I never once looked at a road map, even though I do have several maps of New Mexico that I keep in my van. The confusion occurred because there are two state parks, El Vado Lake and Heron Lake, in close proximity to one another. In fact there is a 5-mile hiking trail that travels between the two of them, alongside the Chama River. (Which we did a little hiking on, to find a letterbox, during our trip)

In addition, from several points on the road to El Vado Lake, you can even see Heron Lake in the valley below. On the State Park map it looked like the two state parks were along the same road. But in reality they were located on totally different roads.

(A photo of El Vado Lake taken from the Rio Chama Trail)

Looking back I did think it was weird that the first road we drove down only showed signs for El Vado Lake. But we drove the 11 miles all the way down to El Vado Lake and entered the campground anyway. 

I think someone should have placed a sign for Heron Lake, at the turn-off for El Vado Lake, that had an arrow pointing to the next turn-off, so folks would know to go just a mile farther for the turn-off for the road to Heron Lake.

But it worked out in the end and something funny happened along the way, and something amazing, too. We decided to stop by the first campsite we saw with people, and ask if they knew how to get to Heron Lake, and (in my best Gomer Pyle voice) “Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!”, it was some friends of my twinling Jax. Actually, it was the family of one of his Ft. Lone Tree Campers that he took care of when he was a counselor a couple weeks ago. So, we had some fun chatting for a few minutes and were made to promise we’d stop by on our way back home on Sunday.

And the cherry on top was while we were driving out of the park, several beautiful Elk crossed the road right in front of us, les than 20 feet away. One of them stopped right in the middle of road and stared at us, but I was too mesmerized to grab my camera for a photo. By the time it registered to find my camera, the Elk had already leapt up the hillside and were in the tree cover. Bummer!

(Relaxing by the lake with my Dobbie Girl)

We discovered that the road to El Vado was twice as long as the road to Heron Lake, and it was more desolate, wild and western, with loads of sage and tumbleweeds, but not much green. The road to Heron Lake was less than 5 miles long and was a joy to drive down, with picturesque farms and fields of green filled with beautiful horses, lining both sides. At one point along the way, we were treated with another surprise when a Doe and her twin fawns came bounding across the road about 50 feet in front of us. I did remember my camera this time, but the little family were moving very quickly across the horse pasture and by the time I could get my camera focused they were already on the opposite side of the field. In retrospect,I should have photographed the herd of horses that all lifted their heads and perked their ears forward, to watch the deer bounding across their pasture. They were pretty funny.

  

We did find it interesting that where we were was so close to Chama(only 12 miles), as well as Southern Colorado(about 30 miles), which are two more places we want to do more letterboxing and exploring…….Another time. sigh.

 

So, even with our letterboxing and exploring in Abiquiu, stopping off to visit Echo Amphitheater (more on that in another post) and getting a little side-tracked at El Vado Lake, we still managed to make it to Heron Lake with plenty of time to pitch our tent, cook some dinner and enjoy a gorgeous sunset.

Of course, I took a few more than just one photo. hehe.

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And I woke up early in the morning, before the sun had risen, and before all the Boy Scouts had opened their eyes, and Dobbie Girl and I went for a walk alongside the lake. We had been told the night before that a mountain lion had been spotted in the campground the previous evening and had killed a deer, so I was on alert for the big cat, as well as any signs of wildlife. And I did find a meandering trail of mountain lion paw prints (Huge! Bigger ‘round than my hand with fingers fully extended), along with deer and Elk hoofprints, and some other small mammal pawprints, but otherwise our walk was pretty uneventful. We walked for the better part of an hour and watched sailboats and partyboats slipping into the lake while the sun rose above the cliffs. It was very relaxing and a great way to start the day.

After breakfast, the Boy Scouts had a Service Project to work on and they all loaded into several cars to work on spreading gravel in several campsites in another section of the park. Besides being a good example, doing Service Projects provides certain perks for the Troop, such as complimentary camping, so the boys are always eager to help out.

(One of our Scout Leader’s tents reminded me of our recent visit to Roswell to see the Aliens. A sort of combination spaceship/teepee design. I like it.)

While they were working, Jen and I hung out beside the lake, her playing in the water and me photographing whatever caught my eye.

(This is our tent….not as exciting as the Alien Spaceship design, but easy to pitch with the built-in poles. Takes less than 3 minutes and I can do it by myself. It’s also roomy enough for 4 adults…..5 if you don’t mind being packed in like sardines…..6 if you like to spoon one another)

For a short time on Saturday morning, the conditions were perfect for some cloud reflections and I was thrilled to be able to catch some images with camera.

The water was smooth, calm and mirror-like, and the clouds were low and perfectly shaped.

The rest of the weekend, the water was choppy or blurry and the sky perfectly clear or the clouds were thready and wispy. Photography is all about being in the right place at the right time and being prepared to shoot.

 

I did play in the water a little bit, too. The water was the perfect temperature and very shallow and clear. And the smooth, flat shale rock, lining the shore were perfect for teaching Jen how to skip stones. We had a few of them skipping 4 and 5 times.  

Dobbie says, “Every dog should get the opportunity to play in a lake”

Remember that Dobbie spent the first two years of her life inside a cage, in a Puppy Mill. All outdoor experiences are new for her. What surprises me most about my dog, is how she takes everything in stride and is always willing to go someplace different and try new things. This was the first time that Dobbie has ever willingly waded into a body of water, so I was very excited and proud of her.

Dobbie says, “Swimming in fun!…And so is the drying-off part, too!”

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There was also mud bathing, too.

People pay a lot of money for mud treatments.

Jen slathered it on for free.

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After the boys got back from their Service Project, we all had lunch and then some of the boys loaded up and rode over to the Dam to do some High Diving (from 20-40 feet, depending upon the rock platform they dove from) off the cliffs beside the Dam, while some stayed back at the campsite to go kayaking. Jem was one of those who wanted to High Dive, while Jax and another Scout wanted to kayak.

So, since Jen and Dobbie and I were hanging out at the beach, the photos I have are of Jax, though I wish I could have seen Jem High Diving. He said it was a rush!

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Meanwhile Jax was having a blast kayaking and was out there for several hours, skimming across the lake to a little island in the middle.

 

(That island was about a mile away from the shore and my zoom struggled to focus. Two other Boy Scouts are pulling up their kayak on the left. Jax is on the far right, I think, putting his life vest and oar in the kayak, so the 4 boys could go explore the island)

 

Rowing back to shore.

Up Next: The Day Wasn’t Over……