Today’s plan was for John and I to hike the Piedra Lisa Trail at the foot of Sandia. The girls went to the Sandoval County Historical Society where Christine volunteers, to meet her friends. On Jim and John’s drive to the hiking trail, we passed by the Balloon Fiesta Park and saw dozens of balloons in the sky as well as several touching down on reservation land. Of course that meant that the reservation police were on the scene no doubt there to impose a “fine”.
Eventually we reached our turnoff to the parking lot for our hike. It’s a slow, twisty, narrow road from the main highway. With no shoulder and a lot of blind curves, it’s an exciting drive.
The road ends in a small parking lot. It’s a beautiful hike through thickets of piñon, juniper and cedar with lots of cacti just off the trail. The trail is kind of steep in places and tops out at about 8000' at our turnaround near the top. The hike also gives spectacular views of Sandia and the city and desert beyond.
We walked a little ways up the side trail to Sandia but then found a cool, shaded place to rest. A woman showed up on her way up the trail and we talked for a few minutes. She is from Wisconsin and is visiting her mother for her 80th birthday.
The weather was perfect- low 60’s to start and then 70’s when we came down. The whole trip out and back was about 4.8 miles. We started at about 7000’ of elevation. It was tough at times going up and a little dicey coming down on loose gravel. There were many skids but no spills.
In the meantime, Christine gave Susan a tour of the Sandoval Historical Society where she volunteers. It is a small building packed full of history and artifacts and many dedicated volunteers that seemed thrilled to be there. The building is adjacent to the Santa Ana Star Casino that is trying to get the historical society land. But the dedicated leaders for the organization are holding strong to keep it. They even convinced the Casino to let them use their Internet. Afterwards, it was time for lunch at the Range, the historic and venerated cafe in downtown Bernalillo.
John and I got back to the car a little after noon and thought that the Range sounded great for lunch so that’s what we did. It was as good as I remembered. I had a tasty blue corn enchilada with adovada sauce. Plus you can’t leave without eating one of their signature fantastic desserts. I had instructed Christine to pick me up some carrot cake so I decided to bring home some Key Lime Pie for the girls. John brought home their spectacular Chocolate Roadhouse Cake. We headed for home.
In the evening we went to Audrey and Louisa’s house in south ABQ. It was kind of a hike and we had to negotiate some in-town traffic. They have a cool house with a big back yard, including a derelict school bus that came with the property. Louisa wants to eventually make it into a bar, stationary of course. We sat out on the deck and had some drinks and caught up. Audrey is in a neck brace due to bone weakness in her neck due to her cancer treatments, but her spirits seemed good as always. She made what she said was Iowa food. She went to UNI for her Masters so had some experience with the native cuisine. So she made sloppy joe’s and coleslaw. She referred to her sloppy joes as “taverns”. Never heard that term but they were tasty. She and Louisa are headed to the Balloon Fiesta. They have a spot reserved for their RV in a VIP parking lot.
We stayed for a couple of hours and then decided to head for home. It was a fun night.