Another Walk....

There are several trails at Abiquiu campground and today we decided to hike on the one that leads down to the beach and over to the boat launch.  It took us a while just to find the trail...   but once we did, it was fairly easy walking.  Probably a couple hundred feet in total acclivity, but except for a couple of places going down and the rise up was fairly gradual.

The views of the lake were fantastic!

Interesting trail markers, huh?

We didn't see any live snakes, but plenty of these guys pointing the way.

We saw lots of Western bluebirds...

Not deep blue, but you can still see that the head is totally blue.  There several flocks that seemed to be hanging out together.

Not to be outdone...

There were a few Mountain Bluebirds as well.

This Great Blue Heron might have been a juvenile....  his markings were rather mottled and not very distinct.  I changed my camera settings to catch him in flight...  and wouldn't you know it?  no matter how close I crept up on him he remained right there at the edge of the cliff.  After we were walking away and quite a way from him I heard a splash... turned around... he was gone.  

Just below the outcropping of big rocks where the heron was standing was this huge rock.

I have no idea where all the carvings on it came from but kinda doubt they are old petroglyphs ;-) 

(that's a buoy in the water at the upper left)

I'd been asking Bill what the composition of these rocks was...

He picked up this one...  lava

But most we saw were sandstone...  I like seeing the grains of quartz sparkle in the sun.

I've a likin' for lichen...

Some of these rocks had several kinds of lichen on them...  my favorite are the round ones.  

Just think, in a few more thousand years the lichen will have eaten these rocks down to gravel.

We walked down to the beach...  no swimming allowed now due to low water level.  But...  I picked up this fishing lure along the water's edge.  Sure wouldn't be fun to step on that when you're running into the water, would it?

We did see this cottontail....

There were some guys working on a bridge and we stopped to talk.  I asked about the wildlife here...  not many pronghorn anymore... too many poachers.  But they have elk, bear and deer in some areas.  Of course we didn't see anything like that...  seeing the rabbit and the birds was enough to make me happy.

Back up the trail to the top...

I kept telling Bill to step back...  another step...  just one more step.

He just grinned and stayed right where he was.  Good thing, because it was one heck of a drop down to the lake...  and I really want him around many more years.

When we got back up to the top, we noticed this...

Yep, Yogi....  it's a Fork in the Road.

We hadn't noticed it when we were on our way down, but this actually designates that the trail splits and the upper trail is on the right...  the trail that heads right down to the beach is on the left.

Didn't really make any difference to us....  we just made a big loop.  My pedometer registered that we walked just over 3 miles total.  Not a whole lot but walking back up that hillside wasn't easy!

Wednesday we'll leave this area and head down to Albuquerque.  Our reservations start tomorrow at the Fiesta grounds although the Balloon Fiesta doesn't really start until the weekend.  We have some ideas about how to spend our time before some of our family arrive and are looking forward to being in ABQ again.

Not sure what facilities we'll have...  not sure when I'll be able to post again.

That's All For Today!