Last weekend Ed and I decided it was time to shower ourselves with nature. After 5 plus months of sheltering at home with the occasional grocery shopping trip (with masks, of course) the idea of strolling through nature other than our own 20 acres was exhilarating.
“The Pecos Wilderness is where we’ll hike,” Ed announced earlier in the week. I had never been there, but anything dubbed “wilderness” sounded mighty fine to me.
We left a little after sunrise on Saturday morning with homemade breakfast burritos and a thermos of hot coffee. It was a 90 minute drive through dry country hills, foothills and ever increasing mountainous vistas. New Mexico is like that. You can start out in dry juniper country and end up in aspen and pine within a couple hours or less. Maybe not from everywhere, but luckily from where we live.
As we approached The Sangre De Cristo mountain range, the space around us grew. I watched a raven riding the winds, patrolling his territory and dreamed of flying above this part of the country, taking in the grass, flowers, mountains and deer from from several thousand feet.
But getting up to 10,000 feet by shank’s mare (walking) was as close as I got, and that was plenty amazing for me.
Here are some of the critters we saw on our hike:
- A hummingbird that came to greet us when we parked, most likely mistaking our 1990s van for a gigantic red flower.
- After an hour of hiking, a couple of grouse muttering sweetly to keep in touch with each other as they grazed
- At 8,000 feet, A hummingbird moth I encouraged out of hiding for a photo op
- At just under 10,000 feet, a family of humans hiking back from a mountaintop lake
Plus vistas of aspen, increasing in girth the higher we climbed. Three different varieties of rose hips, wild raspberry and blackberry plants, fern, maple trees, various wildflowers in hues of purple, yellow and red, thigh high emerald grass and monstrous pine trees that smelled of butterscotch.
Our journey up was accompanied by the musical splash of the creek, mini whitewater sounds that followed us most of the way.
We were heading for the closest of the 3 mountaintop lakes, but a thunderstorm and rain at about 10,000 feet turned us back. I was kind of proud of myself, negotiating fallen logs, boulders and slippery edges without mishap. Luckily, as an afterthought before we left home I’d found my sturdy walking stick to bring along.
I loved every minute of that hike. We’re planning to go back in October, once the maples have turned red, and hike all the way to the lakes. The 5 mile hike we just completed will become a 10 mile hike. I can’t wait!
Have you had a recent trip to commune with nature? Tell me about it!
Your animal loving artist,
Merry
