I want to share one last post about our trip to New Mexico. We had the privilege of doing some very enjoyable sightseeing while we were there. We live not terribly far from the wettest place in the Continental U.S. (The Hawaiian island of Kauai beats it for rainfall.) Traveling to a desert was a privilege for us. We were very excited to see the sights, sounds, plants and birds of the desert. And we were not disappointed (except for the fact that we never saw a Road Runner. Did I mention that before?)
We spent one day exploring around Jimez Hot Springs, just north of Albuquerque.
Isn’t that a beautiful sculpture? Be glad that you can enjoy it in a picture though, because it stunk, like most hot springs.
It wasn’t really desert up there. Well, I don’t know what the rainfall is so perhaps it qualifies for desert, but there were trees and greenery and some just stunning sights, as you can see.
One of the most exciting things that the kids found was a beaver dam.
They went searching all around for beaver-chewed sticks and trees. It might have been an abandoned dam. It looked like it needed repair work, but maybe that’s the way they like it!
The kids played upstream and downstream from the dam and just thoroughly enjoyed the place.
We also picked up a new bird for our life list at this spot: a MacGillivray Warbler.
The day that we came home, right before we came home, we squeezed in one last thing–a ride on the world’s longest tram, the Sandia Peak Tramway. It was really neat. You should go to Albuquerque just to do that. It is 2.7 miles long and has only two towers. The view from the top is spectacular. Actually the view all the way up and all the way down is spectacular. The only thing is that the next time we go (???) we need to allow a day and go hiking at the top, but if we had done that we would have missed our plane home and that would be bad.
One of the views from the top.
The tram car.
Us at the top. If you’re wondering about my goofy expression–I was cold. Next time, I’ll take a jacket and a something to pull my hair back so that I don’t have to eat it–it was windy.
That rock sculpture is very cool. It sort of looks like a gigantic petrified log to me that's been carved out. Unreal. Like a cloud that everyone sees something different in.
Cathy
We have a picture in almost that same spot! (But, it isn't on my blog because we went there before I started blogging.) Anyway, I remember how cold it was… even in the summer!
Dana, http://www.alexml.blogspot.com