Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Circle Trail at Hyde Memorial State Park
Hike Difficulty: Moderate
Hiking Distance (Round Trip): 3.91 miles
Time (Round Trip): 2-3 hours
Elevation: 8,398 feet to 9.399 feet
With so many incredible and longer hikes starting in the Santa Fe Ski Basin, I'm guessing Circle Trail in Hyde Memorial State Park often gets overlooked. We didn't see another person on this entire hike. Also, it costs $5 to park, while it's free to park in the Ski Basin. However, I never feel bad about paying money to hike, because I can't think of a way I'd rather spend my money than to keeping state parks alive. And this hike was absolutely wonderful and worth every penny!
Circle Trail is a loop and a little under 4 miles long. Parking can be found right before you get to the Visitor Center on Hyde Park Road (which Artist Road turns into) or right after and both small parking areas have self-pay stations. The trailhead is right across the road from the Visitor Center and has a very clear map of the trails in the park. Along the trail, everything is really well marked. You cannot get lost on this trail. Keep your eyes open for "Circle Trail" signs and you are good to go.
The first mile of the trail climbs steadily up, from 8,398 feet to 9,399 ft. It was definitely a strenuous climb, but the footing is easy and we kind of got into a rhythm. We also always take plenty of breaks on our hikes, so we can take in the views and so I can take plenty of pictures of the wildflowers. I've been very impressed with the assortment of wildflowers in the Santa Fe area during my time here in August. I am getting equally excited about my time here in late September/early October when I hear the Aspen trees are going to blow my mind!
An historic ski tow rope building can be seen on the slope opposite the one we climbed up.
Love these little ones but don't know what they are. Maybe Scarlet Gilia?
Fleabane (I think?)
Jemez Mountains in the distance
Anyway, back to the hike. After the first mile, it's all basically down hill. But the views continue to be amazing. The trees smell incredible. The footing is soft. We completed this hike during the mid-afternoon, which we knew was risky given the consistent afternoon thunderstorms we've encountered here. However, for the majority of this hike the sun was beaming through the trees and I just felt that feeling...like this is what life is about!
If we had done this hike earlier in the day, this would have been the perfect spot for lunch!
Clearly someone else was inspired by this hike. Introducing the new form of prancercise: prancerhiking!
About 2 miles into the hike, it started to sprinkle while still sunny. Then it started to rain harder, but the sun persisted and it was simply magical! Still no thunder, so we weren't worried (plus, we were pretty far down from the top of the trail at this point, so didn't feel unsafe). The rain was cold and so refreshing. Some people might have been disappointed with the rain, but it just added to my enjoyment of the hike. The smell of the rain on the trees and the trail. Seeing the rain falling in the distance, shimmering from the sun shining through it. Driving back out of the rain to Santa Fe, where the rain never fell. It was a terrific way to spend a couple hours, rain and shine!
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Santa Fe Picture a Day - Day 11
Historic Ski Tow Cable Building seen from Hyde Memorial State Park's Circle Trail
Monday, August 26, 2013
Santa Fe Breakfast
Santa Fe is full of places to get a good breakfast burrito, huevos rancheros, or something a little more traditional (though that will still have green chiles on it!) Our latest breakfast adventure was at Cafe Pasqual's. Really cute spot, though a little crowded. I think we lucked out, because I've heard the wait can be quite long. We manged to get a private table (they also have communal tables) with only a 10 minute wait on Sunday morning. Once we ordered, we had some time to look around and check out all the unique decor in the small space. And once our food got there, we were very satisfied with our meals. The Denver omelette and the huevos rancheros were both terrific and they may have the best English muffin I've ever had in my life. (Granted, I am allergic to gluten so any time I indulge in a glutenous treat, I marvel at how truly delicious gluten food items are.)
Other breakfast places on our list to check out include: Chocolate Maven (not in the downtown plaza area, but heard it's incredible!), El Parasol, and Tia Sophia's.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Eat to Hike, Hike to Eat - Taos, New Mexico
Allyson and I spent a great 3 day
weekend in Taos, New Mexico for our 1 year wedding anniversary a couple of
weeks ago. Honestly, we needed another weekend (preferably filled with relaxing
by a pool) after our adventure-filled Taos weekend. This post will cover the great hiking and
eating Taos and the Taos Ski Valley have to offer.
Hiking
We went on
two great hikes in the Taos Ski Valley area. Within a 30 minute drive (and a
really pretty drive at that!) from of the town of Taos, is the Taos Ski Valley.
There are many hikes that start along Highway 150, which heads into the Ski
Valley. We selected one - Italianos
Trail (Trail #59) - described
on a few hiking websites as being a favorite of the locals.
Hike: Italianos Trail in Taos Ski Valley
Hike Difficulty: Moderate/Difficult (steep and constant climbing)
Hike Distance (Round Trip): 7 miles
Elevation: 8,704 feet to 11,387 feet
The trail is 3.5 miles one way (7 miles round trip) and
we were basically climbing the whole way out/up the trail. We gained 2,700 feet in elevation
while
crossing over the river more times than I kept track of. At this time of year
(August), the river crossings were fun and not difficult at all. And the wildflowers were
incredible! Highlights along this trail included the wildflowers and various fungi, a breathtaking
aspen grove, and a couple meadows with decent views. For people looking for a loop trail (and something even more challenging that what we did), you can make a loop out of Italianos and Gavalin Trails. For people looking for something easier, you could just hike up to the aspen grove (about a mile up the trail) and back. You would still get to cross the river multiple times and see lots of wildflowers.
Aspen Grove
Ally's artistic shot
Indian Paintbrush is one of my faves.
One of the meadows
The sun and clouds were actually doing this! Magical!
Hike: Williams Lake
Hike Difficulty: Moderate
Distance (Round Trip): 8 miles (or 4 miles if you start where I recommend)
Elevation: 9,207 feet (starting at ski village) to 11,100 feet
Our second hike is probably the most popular hike in the area - Williams Lake. You can start this hike in two different places. We followed directions provided in the Falcon Guide: Hiking New Mexico, Third Edition, by Laurence Parent. Honestly, I probably wouldn't recommend this route. We started at the base of the ski lift. It adds 4 miles to the hike, making it an 8 mile round trip hike. Although there are some nice aspens along that trail, there was also a lot of construction noise right by the ski resort. The best part of the hike started once we reached the actual Williams Lake Trailhead by the Bavarian Lodge and Restaurant. Unless you are just dying to add 4 steep miles (two up and two down), I recommend starting at the main trailhead.
I have one other strong recommendation. Don't dress based on the weather in the town of Taos. Bring layers and a rain jacket, because we got caught unprepared. It even hailed, which was a first for us while hiking. We really enjoyed this hike, but didn't get to spend much time at the lake, because the rain and hail were not exactly comfortable.
Cool modern house in the ski valley. Telescope in the upper right hand corner.
A little friend found us.
Williams Lake...it wasn't much of a lake by August.
We had our anniversary dinner at The Love Apple. Pretty perfect, right? This place is so darn cute. It looks like someone started a Pinterest page for their dream restaurant and then actually brought it to life. Every little detail fits with their quaint, romantic vibe. We really enjoyed sitting outside on their patio lit by string lights. Make sure you try the amazing cornbread with whatever delicious butters they provided. Their menu is all organic and local and just delicious! Don't forget your cash though, because they don't take credit cards!
They list all of the farms and other locations where they get their ingredients on the chalkboard.
Clearly we were destroying the cornbread! My fave was the blue cornbread.
I forget what our delicious, chocolate dessert was called, but it came with a little heart shortbread cookie. Perfect for our anniversary (they do this on every dessert I think.)
Another night was had dinner at Taos Pizza Out Back. It was super casual with a great outdoor seating area. Supposedly, they have gluten free crust, but they didn't that night. We've had pizza a couple places in New Mexico and they all seem to come with sesame seeds on them. Don't knock it til you try it. I'm a sesame seed pizza eater for life now.
Your visit to New Mexico isn't really complete without a breakfast burrito. Locals all have their favorite place to grab a breakfast burrito. So far, my fave is Taos Diner. So good! Make sure you bring your appetite, because this bad boy is huge. You can get green chile, red chile, or both (called Christmas). I highly preferred the green chile at Taos Diner and wish I hadn't ordered both, but was still very, very satisfied.
Rio Grande Bridge
We took a little detour after our hike at Williams Lake to check out the Rio Grande Bridge. North of town, turn left to stay on Highway 64 instead of turning right to head to Taos Ski Valley. About 4 miles down the road is the bridge. You have to get out and walk out onto the bridge to really experience it. It's a little scary because the river is a long way down there, but the gorge is spectacular. There is also a trail along the gorge somewhere, but we didn't have time to check that out.
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