This year, we didn’t meet all our goals for our hiking year. I’m totally good with that.
This year was the definition of life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. We didn’t count on most things that happened to us- our big spring break trip was cancelled due to a huge home repair that cleaned us out, we were engaged in a legal issue for months that we didn’t anticipate at all, and we found out we are expecting a baby! It is a mix of wonderful and weird, but all in all, good things. Each of these things caused some change in plans.
We did not hit our minimum 100 hikes. We got 63- not bad! More than 52 which is how this whole thing began.
We did get 20 new trails in. We traveled to some new places where we hiked. One of our favorites was Palo Duro Canyon in Texas. We also found some new local trails which was part of what this goal was for.
We finally did our wildflower hike which was overdue from the year before. We did a bluebell hike on Easter and it was one of the most memorable hikes of the year.
We did not get our overnight hike in nor did we hit every state that touches Missouri (except Nebraska which we are saving for our future South Dakota). Missouri actually has the most states bordering it of any other state! We did get to hike in Iowa which we hadn’t previously done so that was great. Oklahoma and Illinois as well.
Of course, we hit some of our very favorite Missouri places and local trails too.
And of course, our favorite Missouri waterways. What’s better than a hike that ends in the river?!
I did not feel as much pressure to accomplish these goals this year. As we set goals for the coming year, it’s become more like a wishlist, a hope, a dream. Because we know especially since 2020 that we can plan but our plan doesn’t necessarily survive contact with the enemy. Or in our case, contact with the year ahead. This coming year, we know that the baby will be coming, and we are excited to see how life looks with our new addition. Hope he likes that baby backpack because he has some hikes in his future! 🙂
Pecos National Historical Park was high on my list of must visit places in New Mexico. First of all, I really needed to visit the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Paul Simon mentions them in his Hearts and Bones song, and I’ve always kind of romanticized it and thought if I was ever in the area, I would definitely visit them. And hike in them.
Also Pecos NHP is full of lots of history and I had read that it had some of the best pueblo and mission to explore in the area.
It is located in the beautiful Glorieta Pass of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico. These are the southernmost subrange of the Rocky Mountains and the mountains Paul Simon mentions in his song “Hearts and Bones.” I have always kind of romanticized them and wanted to visit. It was gorgeous.
This Historical Park is comprised of a couple of areas. We visited the mission and had the experience of descending into kivas and exploring the pueblos. Absolutely fascinating and a sacred experience.
I had been a little nervous to do it in front of everybody of fear of falling, but I did finally go and I was so pleased to have done so.
The kids, of course, worked on their junior ranger badge. We also visited the museum here which has artifacts of the many eras that Pecos was significant.
It was super interesting as the Gorieta Pass has been used to traverse the mountains in this area for thousands of years. As they say on their website, “Pueblo and Plains Indians, Spanish conquerors and missionaries, Mexican and Anglo armies, Santa Fe Trail settlers and adventurers, tourists on the railroad, Route 66 and Interstate 25…the Pecos Valley has long been a backdrop that invites contemplation about where our civilization comes from and where it is going. Thousands of years of this rich history is preserved for visitors at Pecos National Historical Park.” It is really a unique experience!
We also did some mountain hiking which I think is so beautiful. It had been overcast for the beginning of our Pecos visit, but the sun came out for our hike. The hike was just what I was seeking and it was totally gorgeous. The kids really enjoyed it too. Lucy had been worried about seeing cactus- we saw some on our hike and she was pleasantly surprised!
Petroglyph National Monument was one that I was really excited about visiting. I didn’t know much about it ahead of time, but I knew that there were thousands of petroglyphs at the site. It was definitely a solid stop!
We started at the Information Center where the kids got a video intro to the site and got their Junior Ranger booklets. This area was mostly outdoors with a very small info center and shop. The amphitheater for the video was outside, and maybe it was due to Covid, but the rangers were set up outside under a canopy. Petroglyph National Monument is pretty widespread, and there are not a ton of stops or services around. We had several choices of hike, so we chose to do the one with the most petroglyphs on view and then, if we had time and stamina, we would do the Volcanoes Day Use Area (more on that here!).
We started at the Rinconada Canyon Trail. Again, this area is widespread, and this trailhead parking lot was within a residential neighborhood. The trail was amazing. We walked along the escarpment of this canyon with sweeping views of the canyon and the city. But most importantly, views of hundreds of petroglyphs very clear along the way.
It rained just a tiny bit while we were out, but the temperature was perfect. It was all kind of dramatic- I loved it. 😀
The trail was sandy and there were lots of little spurs to explore.
I felt a lot of emotions viewing these petroglyphs left by people years ago for us to explore and interpret now. It was a really special visit that I enjoyed a lot.
In visiting Petroglyph National Monument, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this area is widespread with lots of geographic- and geologic!- variety. We were traveling with friends, and we were debating how much oomph we had, and we determined that we had enough oomph to tackle The Volcanoes Day Use Area of Petroglyph National Monument.
This area is about a 15-20 minute drive from the Visitors Center. I had read some warnings that there could be some crime and violence in the area and to secure your vehicles. The area is in a pretty remote area, so maybe that is why they said that. We had no trouble on our visit, except the trouble we caused ourselves. 😀 We only ran into one other person while we were out there.
We had experienced a very delightful hike prior to this. When we arrived at The Volcanoes area, it was very windy- there are no trees or rocks to block the wind up here. You are on top of an escarpment overlooking the city of Albuquerque. It was absolutely stunning. And, as I mentioned, windy. We had experienced a little rain up to that point, and as we hiked, we got to experience even more. And wind too!
This area is home to three volcanoes- JA Volcano, Black Volcano, and Vulcan Volcano. A little further north is Bond Volcano. There are a few trails, and we ended up looping all three volcanoes, ascending them and walking up and down. The trail is not especially difficult, moderately rugged, and did feel long due to the wind. Our kids were troopers and it was fun to say we had climbed volcanoes!
Another fun experience was catching the tumbleweeds. I had never gotten to experience one up close like that. It was pretty cool!
On the top of the first volcano- the one you could truly summit- it was so windy, I was worried about the little ones! It was strong. But we had amazing views. The pictures do not do it justice at all, and you can barely tell we are on top of anything. 😀
We did also get to experience sweeping vistas of the city and the Rio Grande Valley. It was gorgeous. We were on the fence about continuing or returning to our car. We continued and conquered the most difficult of all the climbs. Again, the kids did great, so did the adults, and we were all proud of ourselves!
This was a unique and fun hiking experience that I would totally do again in a heartbeat. But was not even my favorite on our New Mexico adventure!
One of our priority stops in New Mexico was White Sands National Park. It is something I have always wanted to see, and I wasn’t sure when or if we would be coming back to New Mexico, so I really wanted to make it happen.
Turns out, we fell completely in love with the Land of Enchantment! So we will definitely be back.
Anyway, we had one day to spend in White Sands. We set out from Santa Fe in the morning. We were behind schedule and it has SNOWED- big surprise! I was very nervous driving through the Glorieta Pass due to the snow, but we had a very lovely drive down. It is about 3.5 hours from Santa Fe to White Sands National Park.
We arrived a little later than I had wanted to, which was okay. The family we were traveling with were nervous about things filling up with the crowds that we encountered. We didn’t have to wait long to get in, we stopped briefly at the Visitors Center and then we were on our way. The park is huge, but there aren’t a ton of roads or anything. In fact, there’s pretty much one road. We didn’t encounter traffic, but we did see some full parking lots.
It was an incredible drive in. At first, there’s white sand and plants, and then the road and the plants disappear and you are surrounded by dunes of white sand. It’s incredible!
We found a place to park and began to explore. Something we were very excited about was sledding down the dunes! I had read lots and lots and lots of information regarding the sledding. We had brought a couple sleds, including those slide boards that are very flexible. These were not the best. They worked, but the sand would get caught up. Our friends bought some long plastic sleds and these were great. The best recommendation we found were for saucer sleds. They also recommended wax. The shop was out of wax, and we did just fine without it. I was grateful our friends had brought their sleds!
These dunes were 40-60 feet tall for the majority of what we were sledding. So the trek back up was no joke! I spent a lot of time sitting in the sand. It is not silica sand as many people think. It is selenite basically. It is unlike any sand I have encountered before. The best part is that it just dusts right off with no problem. I imagined we would all be covered and it was really easy clean up! So we took advantage of sitting in, laying on, and experiencing that sand!
My bucket list item was to see the sunset at White Sands. So the sunset hike was top of my list. We played in the sand all afternoon and we wanted to be early to the sunset hike because I had read that the parking lot fills up quick- they were right! We were early so we hung around that area for a while. Then we went on the ranger-led sunset hike. We learned a ton about the formation of the White Sands. The ranger had dug a hole and there was a wood pole in there. You could see that not very deep below us was water! It was very interesting and engaging for both kids and adults!
Nick was sworn in as a junior ranger right there on the hike- a very unusual but special event! He was very proud.
Then the moment we all been waiting for- the sunset! Oh so glorious. We had clear skies, so not a ton of drama from clouds but there was total drama from our surroundings. Definitely in the top ten sunsets I’ve ever seen in my life.
As soon as the sun dropped behind the mountains, the temp dropped a ton! I couldn’t believe how fast it happened. And then we sadly had to make our way out of the park because it closes.
It is located outside of the town of Alamogordo. We stayed there that evening. Inside of the park, there are no services such as food or lodging. The town is really only about ten minutes away from the entrance to the park, so it is okay.
That evening, we got some Mexican food and in the morning, we began our journey home. We had to stop for some souvenirs though- and to see the largest pistachio in the world! Another perk of staying in Alamogordo. 🙂
I am excited to return here soon and share even more that we discover about the park!
**This post have been in draft for nearly a year…. but in preparing for our triumphant return to the Land of Enchantment, I wanted to get this out into the world!
