Aspen Vista

Sunrise at Galisteo



Sunsets from Eldorado





Went to some local trails. The view of Eldorado from Bishop's Peak - about 500' above the local cafe & gas station



Last summit of flat-topped Atalaya - tomorrow they close the Santa Fe National Forest



Got lost on some of the less-used trails down the backside of Atalaya and came across Pichaco Peak. View from the summit. This will still be accessible as it's City of Santa Fe land



Came across this guy on the trails. Best I can tell - this is a horned toad (although they're not toads, they're lizards)



Sunday headed to Aspen Vista for a run up a pretty decent 6-mile dirt road (closed to vehicles) to Tesuque Peak at 12,051'

The first few miles are through Aspens, as expected



Nearing the lovely summit



View



I actually had hit Deception Peak at 12,340' first - thinking this was Tesuque Peak. I believe Deception Peak may actually be a named false summit of Lake Peak. But the trail looked sketchy to me

Looking at Lake Peak. Ummmm...



Santa Fe Baldy



Looking over at Tesuque Peak



Saturday we head back to Boulder

Butterfly 10K

A third fire started this week. It burned pretty wild a few days before getting under control



Hud at Galisteo. He got to hang out with a bunch of old buddies and managed to stay out of trouble





Downtown Santa Fe





Sunday I ran a 10K at Pojoaque Pueblo. The Pojoaque run two casinos here in the county, including the massive Buffalo Thunder



The 10K was a great time and very organized. Plus great shirts. It had a community feel - tons of volunteers from the Pueblo. Water every mile. The course was gently rolling dirt roads and went well - 45:17 for a 7:17 pace and 18/85 (maybe). Even a medal for age group



Pueblo cemetery



Went to the town of Pecos after. Pecos is kind of a gateway to what is supposed to be an awesome wilderness area but is off-limits due to fires (including the one above). The town was like many of the rural Northern New Mexico we've visited - nothing fancy and a touch of Catholicism





Pa told me the last few posts the pics were upside down when he clicked on them. Figured out how to fix that - no thanks to Apple and Google who don't make life easy

Fires and La Luz

Pronghorn antelope in the back yard. Our last house was near BLM land



Horses lazing in the heat near the finish at Jemez



Full moon in the early morning while running with Hud at Galisteo. Hud is having a great time being a bad dog chasing jackrabbits and disappearing over ridges. He has no chance of catching them



Healer's house in the tiny town of Galisteo



Unfortunately there are two large fires near Santa Fe - one in the Pecos Wilderness and one in the Jemez Mountains. They've been burning over a week now. I had hoped to run Pecos Baldy and to a ghost town but they are now off limits

Pecos - what we see from 15 miles as the crow flies and then what a volunteer fire fighter sees (Jason Lombard)





Jemez from 40 miles and at the scene (Dark Glass Photography)





Work was a sweat shop this week as budgets were due Thursday - so took Friday off and went for a run at the Dale Ball trails



Monday they are closing the Sandias (fire risk) so ran La Luz today. I heard about the La Luz trail race - a 9-mile race that only goes up - over 4,000'. You can either run back down (Hahaha) or take the Sandia Peak Tramway

My Sierra Club "Day Hikes" book was very specific - if I started at the lower tram and took a detour to summit Sandia Crest (10,678') and then on to the upper tram, it would be 8.9 miles. Somehow it ended up being 11.9 miles with 4,567'

The first few miles were pretty easy



The next 5 miles or so were enjoyable although no shade. Sandia Crest is on the top right - you can faintly see the towers





After 7 miles hit some shade and it was very pleasant for a mile



After a mile running over large rocks it was a short steep hike to the summit. The views were great but the summit was lame - a parking lot and gift shop



1.5 miles later and I was at the upper tram just as Maureen arrived





On the road to La Luz there were Buffalo - owned by the Pueblo of Sandia