Wednesday, October 1 – On Sunday, we attended one of our favorite churches, Legacy Church. It is in an adobe style dome with matching adobe structures for the office, youth center, and porches. A very unique, southwestern but modern building.
The Balloon Fiesta begins this weekend. On the way to church, we noticed about a dozen balloons in the air.
Our good friends, Jane/Joe and Donna/Norm, that we've spent considerable time with in Mission, TX, the last couple winters arrived on Sunday. They are here to volunteer at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.
Monday morning we all headed to Piedras Marcadas Canyon for a short hike.
Piedras Marcadas Canyon means “canyon of marked rocks.” We were here to see some petroglyphs. Although urban development is quite near, after a short walk, we found ourselves far away from the city…at least mentally. The Canyon is home to the densest concentration of petroglyphs in the valley with an estimated 5,000 or more documented images.
The flat sandy trail that winds through the canyon is as easy trail over a mile back into the middle canyon. There are many petroglyphs, some even with signs to identify their location. There is a little rock scrambling involved. We all came through with only minor scrapes and bumps.
We enjoyed our hike for several hours with our good friends.
Donna, Norm, Jay, Jane, Marsha, Paul
Beauty around the rocks.
There is a plant called the Devil's Claw that hasn't bloomed in over nine years. Due to all the rain in this area, we had the wonderful experience to see the "claw" shaped pod on the plant.
After the hike we returned quickly to “urban life” by stopping at a nearby Costco's for some re-supplying and a quick lunch. It was no hour drive out to this hike.....ha ha!
Later Tuesday evening, we met up with some additional friends, Betty/Jay, Sandy/Tome, and Sandy/Dave, for a lively happy hour at the campground clubhouse. The twelve of us had a good time catching up with each other's travels and remembering old times. A good time was had by all!
Tomorrow we are headed to Lubbock, TX, for an overnight stay at the Elks. We have been there before and really enjoy this Elks park.
Thanks for stopping by. Hope to see y'all back real soon. Have a great day!
That is a great area, but we still need to make to a Balloon festival.
ReplyDeleteI Googled Legacy church. My kind of church. and beautiful too. Hope to do the balloon festival one day
ReplyDeleteThe Balloon Festival is still on our list too. Maybe next year or maybe the one after that.
ReplyDeleteWe love to look for and at petroglyphs. We'll have to look that place up in the future.
ReplyDeleteSure nice to see all that bright blue sky! Nice pics of the petroglyphs. I always wonder if the guys who carved those rocks were called graffiti artists?
ReplyDeleteOnly you would wonder that...lol
DeleteSafe travels as you work your way this way.
ReplyDeleteWe wandered around out there at least as far as Jim's leg would take us. Safe travels.
ReplyDeleteLotsa of great things to see in that area.
ReplyDeleteNice that you had a fun Happy hour too, they are always fun.
You got to go on that hike just in time.
ReplyDeletewhat a privilege to see the Devil's Claw in action. . .really great!
ReplyDeleteI like your couples him/her grouping. . .believe I'll steal that one. . .thank you very much! :)
So glad you got to the National Monument when you did since it is closed now:( Hiking around the rocks to check all the signs and symbols would have been great fun. John and I have discussed that this writing we all appreciate was probably graffiti! Since exploring so many canyons with ruins, we have noticed that most writing and petroglyphs are very randomly placed and usually in strange locations. Very similar to modern graffiti. Something to think about!! Good you had some friends to accompany you on your explorations!!
ReplyDeleteGlad you got to see some balloons before heading out. They must be magnificent flying over the mountains.
We are cheering on the Indians tonight!!!
Love the petroglyphs! And you two social butterflies have quite the following of friends. :) Safe travels!
ReplyDeleteWe really would love to see the balloon festival. I can't even begin to imagine all the color in the sky. It is on our list, but to do it, we are going to need to change the time of year for John's check-ups.
ReplyDeleteLooks like a great area and hike, we would also like to do the balloon fiesta sometime.
ReplyDelete