The Theme today is: Cliffs

This past weekend, Steve and I did about 28 miles in the Sandia Mountains above Albuquerque.  We started on the north end at around 6500 feet elevation and hiked/ran up to the top of Sandia Crest, 10,700 ft., stopped and ate our lunch where the tram comes up, and then ran back to the car.  The trail is beautiful, and goes through several climate zones, from scrub to high desert, to alpine forest.  Above is a view near the turn around point where the tram comes up.
The views here were really spectacular.

And the trail, as you can see, rather precipitous.  No tripping allowed!

 Looking down towards Albuquerque.

Really beautiful up near the top.. This is a part of the La Luz trail.

 And here's another view a few miles from our house. We discovered these cliffs high above the Jemez Valley on a hike one day..... the drop is at least 1000 feet, maybe more.  Straight down.

Whew! Much easier to paint them from the bottom looking up.

There are some trails out behind this mesa, and a gypsum mine too.  We found some crystalized gypsum on our hike - it resembles mica somewhat.  The regular powdery white stuff is just like chalk.. it's what they use to make sheetrock. I always keep interesting rock samples, so gathered a little for my collection from the trails up there.  Not far from here, I have found marine fossils.  Think about that....

Painting, Grazing in San Ysidro, is 8x10 and can be purchased by clicking  here.