La Luz Trail

Well, after 2 weeks of unpacking, I think we are pretty settled into our new house. I put the last curtain rod up and we finished up the last box yesterday. There's still a bunch more to do, but I think we can slow down to a more reasonable pace now. And I'll get back to blogging.

Despite the unpacking, I still managed to go an overnight elder retreat and a hike up the La Luz Trail, both of which were planned months ago prior to our buying this house.

John asked me to try out a hike with him - little did I know what I was getting into! It looks innocuous enough, doesn't it?

We started out somewhere around 5,000 feet elevation or so, probably closer to 6,000 at the foothills of the Sandia Mountains. It was nice and shady at 6:30am.

At 8,800 feet, there was a scenic overlook.

This was the view there, pretty scenic.

The "Needle" was right next to us. That's a pretty blunt needle.

John doesn't look tired at all, does he?

4 hours later, we made it to the top!

I was surprised to find so many microclimates on the way. Several areas looked exactly like a hike through the mountains of Virginia - deciduous trees, grasses, flowers, etc. Nothing like the desert landscape at the bottom of the hike. Here's the view from the top. There you have it so you don't have to hike 4 hours unless you want to.

Wa-hoo! It was a very satisfying small accomplishment. One of the best things was not having to hike back down. We took the tram. Good plan John, good plan.