Yesterday I went on my first group hike with a Meetup Group called WOW WE (Way Out West – Westside Explorers). There were 12 of us on this hike including our fearless leader Woody. I took Scarlett along and she had a blast.
We started our hike in the middle of nowhere about a 1.5 hours west of Albuquerque. We drove to the top of a mesa. After hiking about a 1/2 mile, we came to the edge of the mesa. The views were expansive. Just beautiful!
Cabezon Peak on the left
You could see for miles!
Kelly and Scarlett
We hiked along the mesa for about a mile enjoying the beautiful vistas.
Our fearless leader Woody. We would be climbing down from this point to the valley you see below.
Soon we started heading down to the valley below. That’s when the interesting geology started showing up. I loved all the different colors in the layers of the rock.
I loved the shape of this dead tree
We ate lunch in this patch of white rock. Unique shapes were found all around.
We started seeing our first Hoodoos in the white rock area. I love Hoodoos!
Scarlett found a patch of shade. Not much to be found on this hike. LOL!
We left the white rock area and headed into the valley below.
Once in the valley we passed so much interesting geology. Everywhere I looked, the colors and shapes were so beautiful.
You can see the white rock patch in the distance where we had lunch.
Scarlett had a great time exploring all the ups and downs of the trail.
At one point we had to scramble down a boulder filled crevice. It was a little scary but thankfully Woody helped me navigate the most scary part.
Scariest part of the hike. Thankfully Woody helped me navigate this part.
Soon the mesa was towering over us. We wound our way from one interesting rock patch to another.
We came across a patch of small Hoodoos called mushrooms.
Hoodoo Mushrooms
The winds create interesting shapes in the rocks. I like the little shape in the lower left that looks like a puppy.
After hiking for about another mile, we came to a very large area of Hoodoos and other interesting rock formations. It was a lot of fun exploring this area. We stayed here quite a while since there was so much to see.
So many Hoodoos and colors!
Interesting layers of the rock
Giant pieces of petrified wood
So beautiful!
“Delfido Moralez 1938” inscription
Finally we were on the last leg of the hike. We continued hiking along the bottom of the mesa and connected with the Continental Divide trail. This trail is 1,300 miles long and runs from Mexico up to Canada. For those of you that don’t know what the Continental Divide is:
“A continental divide is a drainage divide on a continent such that the drainage basin on one side of the divide feeds into one ocean or sea and the basin on the other side feeds into a different ocean or sea.”
Thankfully this part of the hike was level and easy. By this point I had hiked over 6 miles. Whew! I think Scarlett had hiked twice that. She loved that there were lots of folks hiking together. She would run way ahead to those in front of me then come running back to me.
Navigating the Continental Divide trail between pastures. You can see the “CD” sign on the post.
Stunning!
The last leg of the hike was the only uphill part of the climb. It was short but fairly steep. I was pretty tired by this point, but made it up fairly well.
The uphill climb to the top of the mesa
Once back on top of the mesa, it was a short 1/2 mile hike back to the car.
Back on top. You can see the Continental Divide trail below that we had just hiked.
Our last grand vista view from the Continental Divide trail before heading back to the cars.
Looking tired LOL!
What a fun hike! In all I hiked 7.5 miles. 🙂 I will definitely be going on more WOW WE hikes in the future. Fun hike and fun people!
Great! I share your enthusiasm for the shapes and colors of the rocks! Fantastic landscape!!
Thank you fotohabitate!
What a wonderful experience Kelly. Those Hoodoo rocks are quite fascinating and artistic to say the least. Doesn’t look like much shade out there though, and not much wildlife to be seen, but like Australia, at night it could be quite different.
Thanks Ashley! Not much shade at all there. Thankfully it was only around 60 degrees. And you’re right, not much wildlife during the day. I heard a few horned larks and saw one chickadee and one rock wren. I’m sure that area comes alive at night.
Sounds fun – glad that Scarlet got to go too!
Scarlett needed a good long hiking day! She snored the whole drive home LOL!
Stunning photos! And I’m impressed with the length of the hike – and the climb back up. You did good!
Thank you so much Donna! 🙂