Yesterday was another slow day at Cochiti Lake. Daylight Saving Time hasn't quite kicked in for us and oversleeping is the result. We were feeling a bit sluggish, a condition Ellen attributes to our travel diet which, in her opinion, has way too much meat and too much junk. I have to admit, it is too easy to prepare a grilled steak or make a ham or turkey and cheese sandwich, and southwestern food is spicy and meat-centric. Maybe she has a point. Any way, we got a late start.
We decided to take an easy ride to the Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument, all of ten miles away. We packed our daypack, hiking boots and walking sticks on the bikes so we could hike once there.
As the monument is nearby and surrounded by the same Cochiti Reservation as the lake, we expected a pretty quiet hike. We were wrong. While there has been hardly anyone at the lake and campground, the monument trailhead was swarming with people. It seems that it is a school vacation week and spring break time. For some reason, Tent Rocks is a popular destination.
We headed up the Slot Canyon Trail, which winds through a slot canyon (naturally) and up to the top of a mesa. Tent Rocks is an apt description for the rocky spires that line the trail. It is an area of volcanic deposits of ash, pumice and tuff that have eroded away into spires that look like tents, teepees actually. In addition to the tent formations there are hoodoos, which are columns of eroded soft sediments capped by a harder rock. The cliff faces and slot canyon are pretty spectacular as well with layers of ash and pumice that are colored in shades of pink and tan.
At the top of the climb, we had an expansive view of mountain ranges and plains in Santa Fe and Albuquerque as well as Cochiti Lake reflecting a brilliant sky blue. Despite the crowds, it was a worthwhile hike—and they had a passport stamp. (For the uninitiated, the National Parks passport program offers a series of cancellation stamps at parks, monuments and other places as a way to remember your visit. The stamps usually include the date, a good reminder for those of us in late middle age or early old age, depending on your point of view.)
After a short ride back to the campground and we kicked back, had an afternoon coffee and tea, and prepared a vegetarian dinner of a vegetable curry and rice. It took about two and a half minutes as one of the advantages of a campsite with and electric hookup is that we can use Speedy's microwave. Heat-in-the-bag curry and rice: a dinner even Steve can prepare.
Today, we planned to do a section of the Jemez Mountain Trail but to get there we had to go south to Bernalillo. Both Google Maps and the Garmin mapping software showed a twisty road through the pueblos that was supposedly paved. We got as far as the Santo Domingo Pueblo.
While riding through the pueblo, we were stopped by a long line of pickup trucks coming the other way along a narrow section of road that was lined with parked pickup trucks on both sides—not even enough room for the bikes to squeeze by. We pulled over and waited for the line of slowly moving trucks to clear. As we sat astride our bikes, we talked with the men waiting alongside the road. All were holding shovels and many had lopers as well. It seems today is the day the tribe (actually men only) holds a workday to clear the irrigation ditches that have become clogged with sand and debris over the winter. There were at least 1,000 men and most pickup trucks held two or three in the cabin and just as many in the bed.
They asked where we were headed and when we told them, they pointed out that the route we planned to take was dirt and very rough. There was another route which was easier, but also had at least five miles of dirt. The only paved alternative was I-25 for quite a long way. We headed back to Cochiti Lake, arriving just in time for lunch.
This afternoon we will be packing up the bikes to head south, probably to City of Rocks State Park to overnight and then on to the Gila National Forest for a couple of days before meeting our friends, Garry and Kate in Silver City.
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