I figured I'd head up a back road from Cochiti Lake toward Los Alamos and camp out somewhere in the mountains - or not. I wasn't completely all-in on camping out last night, but figured I'd take everything along as an exercise.
As I packed the car yesterday morning, there was thunder and lightening and it started sprinkling. These summer rain storms tend to pass by pretty quickly, so I wasn't too worried. By the time we got away, around 9 a.m. (was trying to leave by 8) it was already shaping up to be a pretty nice day.
Here are some pics --
The road just re-opened in April, after having been closed since '06 due to the huge Conchas Fire that burned thousands of acres.
I didn't keep track of the canyon names, but the road hugs the edge of this one.
Several interesting rock formations, eroded volcanic tufa. I didn't get pictures of them, but there are areas with several of these that folks call tent rocks.
Bambi had no fear of us. This was a red mule deer spike buck. I've only ever seen grey mule deer, but this guy definitely had the ears, so I don't know what else he could have been.
Down below is what is left of the Dixon apple orchard. Floods after the fire wiped the place out. They were trying to get the taxpayers to reimburse their losses, but were told to pound sand. It used to be a pretty neat place, but you build you farm in a flood plain, taxpayers should not have to bail you out when it floods.
You can sort of see Cochiti Lake up in the left top portion of this picture. Note the burned Ponderosa pines.
Had to stop so the dogs could pee.