Photographs
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It's always nice to see the Bosque turn green as
Spring arrives in full force. This is a photograph of
the Bosque north of Alameda on the west side of the
Rio Grande where the cottonwood forest is dense,
viewed from a meadow by the trail. A couple years
ago I went down to the Bosque south of Central expecting it to look like this and found all the trees
still bare. Two days later I went back to the same
area and every tree had a full crown of green. It
was ecstatic.
Flowers of the tree cholla cactus range from rose
to almost purple, with the most common color a
deep magenta. They bloom in late May or early
June and are usually gone by the time July rolls
around, although I think there are still a few out
as I post this. I took this photograph in late June
about noon near the start of the Michael Emery
Trail at the end of Spain Road in Albuquerque.
I got this sunset picture in June of this year, showing
the sun through the branches of a dead tree almost disappearing below the horizon and giving the sky a
deep red-orange hue near the horizon, contrasted
with a fading dark blue-gray above. I like the way the
colors stand out in contrast with the almost completely black lower half of the photograph. When it's hot I like
to hike in the evening near sundown when the air has cooled and direct heat from the sun's rays is minimal.
We were having a stretch of 100 to near 100 degree
days at the time that precluded afternoon hiking.
After 31 years hiking the trails of the Sandia Mountain Wilderness, I can still come across plants and flowers
unlike anything I've seen before. I photographed this
plant identified on [email protected] as myrtle spurge along a trail above Pine Flats in the Manzanita Mountains
southeast of Albuquerque. I like its sculptured shape
and the contrasting blue-green leaves with the yellow-
green new leaves
Ponderosa forest on a ridge above Pine Flats in the Manzanita Mountains lit by the setting sun. When the
sun nears the horizon the forest takes on a golden
glow like this that makes everything stand out. This
was taken at the crest of the ridge on Deadman Trail, a
favorite place of mine to hike lately. Ponderosa forests
in New Mexico typically have a lot of open space with
minimal undergrowth as seen here, so you can see
the forest, not just the trees closest to you. It's visually
pleasant to hike through.
