Decisions, decisions.

Click the photo to go on a hike with us in William Hyde State Park, NM

Today the sun came out. (For a minute we thought we must be in Oregon, not New Mexico). I had a few little maintenance projects to do on the coach, which I was able to dispatch pretty quickly. Jill wanted to do a load of laundry, but someone beat her to the machines, so she put that on hold.

We were not sure what to do with our day. We saw most of the outdoor stuff in downtown Santa Fe yesterday, and we had planned to go to Museum Hill, which is home to four museums. But when I saw the cloudless sky, after so many rainy days, I said, "Let's find a park, where we can take Pogo for a walk." Jill was not enthusiastic, at first. She had her heart set on the museums.

There is a collection of hiking/biking trails just outside of town, called the Dale Ball trails. We thought they would be perfect for our purpose, and as the beautiful weather grew on Jill, she consented to the hike. We programmed Maggie (our Magellan Maestro GPS unit) and hit the road. Eventually, we arrived at the William Hyde State Park, named for a beloved scout master of Santa Fe.

As we puzzled over the map, the ranger approached us and asked if we needed any help. We explained that we were looking for the Dale Ball trails, and he told us that we had gone way past them, but that there were nice hiking trails in the state park, one of which leads to a waterfall. Well, that was all we needed to hear. We paid the $5 for a day pass; I threw on the back pack, and we headed up the trail.

If you have lived your whole life at sea level and then started hiking up a trail beginning at 8,400 feet elevation, you can understand that this was no mean undertaking. The beginning of the trail is quite steep, and it was not long before all three of us were winded. We stopped, had some water, caught our breath, and continued. Soon, we were wondering whether the altitude or the scenery was taking our breath away. I estimate we climbed to 9,000 feet.

This is a gorgeous park. After a number of rest breaks we arrived at the waterfall, which isn't large, but it is beautiful. Pogo had a drink from the stream, and Jill and I sat and drank in the beauty of it all. Finally, we decided that we needed to head back down.



Arriving back at the visitors' center, we explored the lodge, which sits back from the road. It is used primarily for gatherings. The ranger told us they have had two high school graduations there this year and a number of weddings. We hiked up behind the lodge and sat on a bench. From that perspective, it became clear that there is a run above the lodge that is used in the winter for sledding and tubing.

Reluctantly we packed up and left. There was still that pile of laundry awaiting us, and we needed to stop at the grocery store. We returned to Sadie very tired, but very happy. Jill acknowledged that she was glad we had not spent this day of glorious weather inside of a museum.