Saturday, July 17, 2004
Columbine Canyon, Red River, NM
We hiked up Columbine Canyon from the Red River valley. It was a pleasant enough hike through a river valley with alternating valleys and forest. The highlight was our use of a crystal purchased at the Taos co-op for deodorant purposes. As you can see from the pictures, it didn't work so well.
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Wednesday, July 14, 2004
Gold Hill, Taos, NM
During our week in Taos Sara and I had one day to ourselves. We took advantage of this day to hike in perhaps my favorite hiking area ever! This hike leaves from the Taos Ski Valley parking lot and climbs up a gravel road, the same road that leads to Wheeler Peak. But instead of heading north from the road, we hiked up a stream valley to the south and reached Gold Hill (elevation 12,xxx). I love hiking above tree-line in this area as it makes me feel like I'm floating in the sky. I love hoofing it up a steep trail to reach an area with beautiful views and relatively easy, flat hiking. After the obligatory self-portrait at the top of the hill, we headed back down for some nachos at the Ski Valley base. Yum!
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Monday, July 12, 2004
Williams Lake, Taos, NM
We took this hike with Sara's mom Gloria. This is a relatively easy hike literally in the shadows of Wheeler Peak. Although it is "easy" it's still 3 miles long and has some steeper stretches (darn moraines) that revealed my lack of acclimation to the elevation (huff huff). Once at the lake we enjoyed lunch and Sara enjoyed flicking the nose of a begging chipmunk. It's also fun to sit at the lake and watch people ascend (or attempt to ascend) the very steep grassy flanks of Wheeler.
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Sunday, July 04, 2004
Mississippi Headwaters, Bemidji, MN
Sara, Bella, and I spent the July 4th weekend at her Aunt Pat and Uncle Monte's house near Bemidji, Minnesota. On the way home I convinced Sara to stop at the Mississippi headwaters state park. While it's silly to label a single stream as the headwaters (especially since it drains from a lake which is fed by streams itself), it was fun to wade in the narrow stream channel of a river that reaches magnificent size. The floods of 1993 were instrumental in developing my interest in hydrology and geology, and I've always been fascinated by the river. Sadly we've learned little from the 1993 floods, as floodplain development has, if anything, increased in the St Louis area since the floods. Anyway, it was fun to dip my toes into the 'headwaters'!
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