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!