Exploring the west side

So a few weeks ago, I decided to explore some of the west side of ABQ with the dogs.  Unfortunately, it turned out to be the coldest weekend of the season so far.  Windy and pretty darn cold - but still, the sun was out.  So I decided to venture out anyway.

On the west side of ABQ there are the Petroglyph mountains.  There is actually a monument area with visitors center and trails to the Petroglyphs.  I didn't go there.  Because it is a heavily populated tourist destination, they don't let dogs in that area. So... I did a little research and found a day use area on the back side that is less populated and is dog friendly.

The day use area surrounds a group of three volcanic plugs, remnants of volcanic eruptions from 150,000 years ago.  The resulting Basalt rock formed the volcanic plug.  And there are 3 separate trails ranging from easy to moderate leading to each of them: the JA Volcano, Black Volcano and Vulcan Volcano.  Basalt is the rock made from the cooling lava.  It is generally grey or black in color, but with age weathers to brown or red-rust due to oxidation of mineral content.

It's a nice drive out the other side of the valley and up the outer rim of ABQ on the west side.  After passing an industrial area, the road leads past flat desert pastures.  I spotted a few cattle on the left side making their way through the pasture.  The day use area has a paved parking lot, and thankfully, a bathroom as well!  There is even a doggy poo bag station and trash cans at the entrance of the trail head, along with reminders to stay on the trail and not to take anything from the landscape (other than trash or doggy poo, of course!).

If you decide to use the trail during the warmer months, be forewarned.   A popular resident of this area is the rattlesnake.  Apparently they are quite proliferate.  The website for the day use area gives tips for encountering/avoiding them.  Fortunately, I was hiking in cold weather, during the time they tend to hibernate.  I'm not ready to encounter that particular wildlife species here; and neither are the dogs.

The dogs seemed to be having a blast.  There were very few people out in the cold.  Doc loved the area!  Maybe it was familiar to him?  I did adopt him from a west side shelter.  He was alert and excited and totally at home there.  Jane did okay, until we got to the top of the first volcanic plug and the wind started whipping viciously.  It was cold and windy and sandy, and Jane hated it.  See photos below.  I know it will appear that I am a terrible owner to be snapping her picture while she was so miserable.  I can assure you that we headed back down the second after I snapped the picture.  Actually I carried her a little way, poor thing.  She's not very much of a hiker.  After traipsing around the other two plugs a bit, we gave up on the cold and headed back home.  But it was a nice outing anyway with some great views.  It's always good to get out on a cold weekend instead of mewing up on the couch!

Remembrances

Dia de los Muertos (day of the dead) is a mexican holiday with roots that extend back some 2500 years.  It is traditionally celebrated November 1st and 2nd - a time to gather with family and friends to remember and pray for loved ones who have died.  Altars are set up with marigolds, skulls, and the favorite food and beverage of the deceased.  Parades are held and festivals with skulls and skeleton figurines everywhere. In Albuquerque, the annual Marigold Parade is held November 4th.  I missed it this year, but plan on attending next year.

Something about this holiday intrigues me.  It serves a much better purpose than Halloween has come to mean.  Our own Halloween, or All Hallow's Eve, stems from a similar background - remembering the dead; or a more pagan version being that it is a time when then the veil between our world and the dead thins - allowing the dead to come through and visit us once more.  Today's Halloween has become a selfish excuse for children to beg for candy and eat until sick; for adults to allow themselves to become silly children for a night (not a bad thing!); for churches to rail against (and yet come up with some unique ways of celebrating the night, still having candy and calling it something different).  Day of the Dead seems to me a much better holiday.  What better way to remember our departed loved ones than a celebration, a remembrance of their lives, prayers lifted up?!

We all have our own ways to remembering.  For my family, well, for my Mom, who taught me, the tradition was to keep flowers on the graves.  It was something immensely important to her - that they not be forgotten, that the graves be tended lovingly in remembrance.  She changed the silk flowers out every season and for each holiday - July 4th, Christmas, Easter, etc.  I even remember when visiting relatives that she always made time to go by the cemetary in those towns to pay respects to lost family.  Many, many times when I lived at home, I went with her.   She taught me how to stuff the vases with the green florist blocks, and arrange the flowers so it didn't show.  Although I'm sure she despaired of me ever being really great at flower arranging! LOL! And I often remember asking to go with her if I had come home for a visit from far away.  It's peaceful there at the cemetary. Not morbid at all.  A respectful silence - like a breath held a moment in anticipation.  It was comforting to me - a way of embracing my brother and great aunt (and now mother and close friends), cherishing their memory and their love.  It grounds me, helping me to remember my roots, and to see how far up I have grown.  Silly as it may sound, I talk to them while I'm there.  Yes, I have chosen to continue my mother's tradition.  Although I no longer live in town, whenever I am there, I put new flowers there.  Even for my good friend, Terry, whose marker doesn't have a vase - I stick them in the ground beside the marker, even though I know the groundskeepers will just pull them up again when they mow.  It's not how long they last.  It's that I remember, that I still care, my respectful thanks for their presence in my life.

So yes, I talk to them as well.  I tell them that I miss them.  That I still remember.  I tell them a little about my life now.  I tell them I won't forget.  Hmmm, perhaps the visits are more for me than for them. But no matter, I will continue the tradition.  It's something I can still do for my mother and for myself.  Hopefully, although I do not have children, I can pass this tradition on to someone else as well.  Tradition keeps us all connected.

And so I urge you to take some time during this celebration to remember your own traditions, your own departed loved ones - not with sadness or regret, but with happiness that they are connected to you and still live on in your heart.

If you see me at the cemetary some day when I am in town, feel free to join me.  I'll be the one arranging the new flowers and dusting off the edges of the markers...  Maybe someday I'll live closer and can change the flowers more often.  Mom would like that.  

Miscellaneous ponderings and wanderings

I have been remiss in posting lately.  I had a wonderful trip home to visit family and friends in South Carolina.  I tried to time it so that I could see the beautiful fall colors.  But, alas, the colors this year weren't as lovely as usual.  Still, it was great to be home - to see trees and grass and the mountains.  One of my goals was to get some mountain apples fresh from an orchard.  There are no orchards within three hours of Albuquerque that I've been able to find.  And I'm used to having access the bounty of fresh picked apples and apple cider in the fall.  So my friends and I set off to the NC mountains near Asheville to find an orchard.  We aimed for Hendersonville, and ended up in Bat Cave, NC.  Got some great Mutsu apples from Justus Orchards.  We stopped in for a look around - it's really the end of apple season here.  I discovered that a bad frost in the spring had killed off a lot of the apple harvest this year. That's the kind of thing you don't learn in a grocery store!!  So I gorged myself on cider and apple doughnuts, apple pie, apple bread and apples, apples, apples!!  I managed to purchase a half bushel to bring home with me on the airplane.  And let me tell you, they are seriously heavy in a back pack.  But it has been so worth it to have fresh, mountain apples!  Nothing like it in the world!  And a little taste of home out in the high desert.

Coming back from vacation is always tough.  So this past week or so has been really super busy at work and personally.  I did manage to spend an afternoon carving pumpkins with my mentee for Halloween though....

And this weekend has been filled with hunting for a rental house.  But I took some time out to take a hike with a new friend of mine.  We went to the Elena Gallegos open space.  I hadn't been there yet.  It's only 15 minutes from my apartment.  So I've no excuse at all.  And I intend on going back quite often.  It was simply beautiful.  We walked up the mountain side of the Sandias for about an hour - decided that was enough for the day and headed back downhill.  But seeing the trees and the blue sky and the rock covered mountain side - it just made for a wonderful, peaceful day.  My friend is native american.  He says the Sandias are a sacred place to the Navajo - that there is strong energy in the mountains.  Many Natives come there to pray.  He says the strong energy can disorient you very easily there and get you lost.  And that because it is a sacred place, the natives believe that you shouldn't eat there or disturb things.  We kept an eye out for bears, but didn't see any.  He said that he used to bring his kids there and they would howl like coyotes and get the real coyotes howling with them!

The open space is a 640 acre park supporting a pinon/juniper habitat.  Coyote, bear, cougar and hawks are among the wildlife that can sometimes be seen there.  Elena Gallegos was one of the original Spanish colonists that settled this area.  She obtained a land grant sometime around 1712 for this area.  It's absolutely beautiful up there.  I could spend hours just watching the blue sky through the trees.

This is definitely a must return to space.  As often as I can.  Although the recent time change will probably limit that to weekends until spring.  Ah well.... lots to do the next two months.  Holiday celebrations will soon abound and I am determined to make a few more of the Luminarias.
Jules