Jemez National Recreation Area
Traveling eternity road
What will you find there?
Carrying your heavy load
Searching to find a piece of mind ~~~ Moody Blues
Happy Memorial Day, for the patriots out there.
We’re posting today from Cuba – New Mexico. Good day for laundry, where we met 3 through hikers on the Continental Divide trail.
Lovely high desert plains with colorful mountain ranges.
We headed northwest out of Sante Fe, across Bandelier National Monument and camped for 4 nights in the Sante Fe National Forest. We managed to find tiny alpine meadows surrounded by devastated wildfire destroyed forest. There were huge areas of wildfire that devastated lovely ponderosa pine forest. The USFS closed the forest last year due to fire risk. From what I can tell, the destructive wildfire raged in 2013. All that seemed to have begun to grow back were aspen – I didn’t see any ponderosa or any pine recovery.
Heading west we enjoyed a spectacular hike on the Las Conches Trail along the East Fork of the Jemez River in the Valles Caldera National Preserve
Camped in Jemez National Recreational Area at the base of colorful cliffs.
Weather has been tough for the last 2 weeks, with cool temperatures (mid 50″ during the day, low 30’s a night) and terrific and constant wind, which makes it difficult to enjoy being outside for extended periods.
Lilac rain, unbroken chain
Song of the saw-whet owl
Out on the mountain, it’ll drive you insane
Listening to the winds howl ~~~ Grateful Dead
Some photos:
Meadow in the Sante Fe National Forest just west of Bandelier NM (you can see wildfire damage in background)
Jemez NRA
