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.

 

And there’s a Hitching Rail, too!

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.

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.

 

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.

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!).

 

 

 

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!

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!

The Aluminum Yucca

 

My kids and I went for a Letterboxing hike in Albuquerque a few weeks ago, and I’m finally getting around to posting the photos and the fun that we had.

The trail we hiked was only about 20 minutes west of our our home, among the foothills of the Sandia Mountains, just above and east of Albuquerque.

These trails are all a part of the Albuquerque Open Space and are open to horseback riders, too. Since this area is 2,000 ft lower in elevation than our home, these trails are a good place to hike or horseback ride in the winter, since they usually don’t get snow, and if they do, just a dusting.

This was a perfect day for a hike…blue skies, sunshine, no wind, and temps in the upper 70s. The trails were smooth and sandy, and only gently hilly.

From these trails we could see Kirtland Air Force Base and the Albuquerque Sunport in the distance, and watch the airplanes taking off and landing.

Along the way, there were lots of boulders to climb and explore.

Boulders bigger than cars are fun to climb.

More boulders beckoned from atop the ridges.

I always have a great time hiking with my kids.

Soon we could see Interstate 40 down below us.

Also down below us we could finally see our destination: The Aluminum Yucca!!

Approaching Albuquerque from the east on I-40, a public art installation welcomes visitors to the city: The Aluminum Yucca.

Since the letterbox was down near the Aluminum Yucca, which required a rugged hike over and through some large boulders, Jen and I chose to stay up on the side of the hill, while the boys hiked down to retrieve the Letterbox.

The Aluminum Yucca is a 22-foot tall sculpture created by artist Gordon Huether using salvaged aluminum fuel tanks from F-15 aircraft. At night, the giant yucca is illuminated by LED panels of slowly varying color, powered by solar energy.

 

Visit this link to see a beautiful nighttime photo: Aluminum Yucca at Night

While we waited for the boys, Jen and I enjoyed the views from above.

Jen especially liked watching all of the semi-trucks and traffic down below on I-40, wondering where they had come from and where they were going.

 

But soon the boys had climbed back up to us, and after stamping in, Jax and Jem took the Letterbox back down to rehide it near the Aluminum Yucca.

 

While waiting on them to finish up so we could head back to our car, we noticed these interesting boulders seemingly blushing with orangey red along their edges.

 

And on all the boulders around us we noticed the sage green and pink colored granite, which created the name for these mountains: Sandia, which means Watermelon in Spanish.

My Dobbie Girl didn’t mind posing for a photo on a granite boulder.

But Mustang Sally was ready to go.

 

It was a beautiful day for a hike and I do enjoy hiking and spending time in the outdoors with my kids.

 

Before we headed back up through the canyon for the drive home, we went out for some dinner in Albuquerque and found one more Letterbox. And on the way home, we were treated to some beautiful views:

The Sandia Mountains

And a pretty sunset

Halloween 2012

 

Some folks say that kids can’t trick or treat successfully in rural areas. They say that houses are too far apart and that it’s next to impossible to gather enough candy in a sack, to make it worth all the driving and walking that must be done.

I beg to differ.

We live in a rural area in the mountains, about 30 minutes east of a large city. And we haven’t traveled to the city to do our trick or treating in 6 years, but my kids still end up with loads of candy each Halloween.

(My twin sons and my daughter)

This year I took my kids to a local feed store where they had offered up their hay wagons to give kids a hay ride out to a neighborhood of about 50 homes, to do their trick or treating. That was a lot of fun! And having the homeowners come out to the hay wagons to hand out their candy, while we all stayed in the wagons was a wonderful idea, too!

(Jem, Jax and Jen)

After the hay ride, we drove over to a local church that was having a Trunk or Treat event. There were about 20 vehicles all decked out and decorated in different, unique themes, handing out candy to trick or treaters. And the church even had a DJ with a disco ball and music in the parking lot. Talk about fun!

(Jax, Me, and Jen)

After the Trunk or Treat event, we decided to swing by our friends’ neighborhood to visit and do some trick or treating door-to-door. The kids probably visited 15 Halloween decorated houses, collecting more candy.

When we got home, I weighed their treat bags, and between the three of them, they collected over 15 lbs of candy!!

Who says you can have a successful candy haul only if you trick or treat in the city?

Searching for the Lorax

I took my kids out hiking recently to do some letterboxing just down the road from our house. I love it when fellow letterboxers place a letterbox close-by, so we don’t have to drive far.
I forgot my camera (gasp!), but I did have my cell phone. So don’t expect much in the way of photo quality. 
We had never hiked in this area before, so it was wonderful that this letterbox brought us to someplace new that is close enough to hike (or ride my horse) anytime we want to.
This area is off of Bartolo Baca Rd in the Manzanos and has a wonderful pull-through parking area, roomy enough for horse trailers (you know that I am always scoping out new places to ride!).
(And there are perfectly-sized mounting boulders right at the trailhead, too)

And even though the main trail traveled through a rocky arroyo, a secondary trail went straight up onto a beautiful, tree-lined, mostly flat, sandy path, which already had hoof prints on them!

We were in this National Forest area to search for a series of letterboxes called The Lorax.
(Jen doing her best impersonation of The Lorax)

There were 3 boxes with 3 separate puzzle-shaped stamps that formed a complete image of The Lorax in the woods, when they were stamped together in our log books.

We really enjoyed the very creative clues, wonderful stamps and beautiful location.

It was great to be out on a hike with my kids. And they seemed to enjoy letterboxing with their Mama and exploring a new trail, too.

The hike started off sunny, but by the time we were done finding all the boxes, clouds had rolled in and as we piled into my van, the first raindrops fell from the sky.

Of course, it never really did rain, but you just never know with our mountain weather, so we were happy to be off the trails when the skies grew dark and cloudy.
We had a great day!