A Long (but worthwhile) Day's Driving

After "sledding" down the mountain Tuesday, the return trip took me around the northerly end of Sandia Peak, giving me a view to the west that I hadn.t seen before.  Part of that view was a mesa similar in form to Devil's Tower in Wyoming but not as big.  Yesterday I began driving west to find it.

After viewing the mesa, I headed easterly, finding some nice color and formation.  I bet this would look great near sunset!

I then followed a road into Jemes Canyon.  I had a mule deer cross the road in front of me, then stop and watch me.  I obliged the posing with a photo, then moved on.

 

 In the canyon I again saw a lot of color and formations.

The road continued  on to the Valles Caldera, the crater of an ancient supervolcano that erupted, then collapsed 1,000,000 years ago.  The crater has a dome in the center, surrounded by a vast meadowland of grass called Valle Grande.  The grassland is about 3 miles from me to the trees, and about 4 miles wide.

At the far right corner, as I drove along the edge, I saw some dots.  They were a herd of elk, my first sighting of elk - more than a hundred of them!  These pics only show part of the herd.

The road leaving the caldera winds up then down through forest, where I saw

o happy day!

I headed home, finishing after 280 miles of driving.  On the way, the sun was setting in front and to my right.  Nice, but not worth stopping on a superhighway, until I noticed color in my rearview mirror.  The sunset in front was nice, but

the sky behind me over the mountains northeast of Santa Fe was incredible.

 

Whatta day!