To the Top!

Living in New Mexico has allowed us to grow a love-hate relationship with the mountains! We love hiking and seeing the views from above but man do I hate the burning sensation in my legs as we gain altitude!! :)
Three weekends ago, we hiked to the top of the Sandia Mountains, here in ABQ. These are the mountains we see from our front porch. We hiked the La Luz trail to the top with a group of our friends. We did the 9.7 miles in 4 hours. Luckily, we only went through a few switchbacks that were still covered in snow. The views of the city from the top were beautiful, being above the airplanes was neat, and knowing we were riding the tram down was marvelous!! Once at the top, we ate lunch and celebrated our victorious hike with a beer and hot chocolate for me because my hands were frozen. We ended our day riding the tram down, back to our car and much warmer temperatures.






Two weekends ago, as a family, we hiked to the top of the Atalaya Mountain in Santa Fe. This hike was a lot shorter at only 1 1/2 hours to the top and only 5 miles round trip. The views became infinitely prettier the higher we hiked. The boys loved the hike, they practically did it twice since they would run up and then run back to us.