Sandia Mountains

The day after Thanksgiving I went on a light hike with Brittany and her family in the Sandia mountains, on the east side of Albuquerque. If you recall, we woke up to snow Thanksgiving morning. Most of the snow melted that day, but in the mountains there was still a bit to be found, including around some prickly pear cacti!


I'm still hoping to get a shot of snow on a saguaro, but snow on any cacti is pretty entertaining. Tangent - both the pinkish bulbs and the green pads of the prickly pear are edible. I realize that plant doesn't look so great - summer is when they're really "in season." People make all sorts of jellies, candies, and drink mixes out of the pink fruits, and the pads (de-prickled of course) are delicious grilled and put into fajitas, or chopped up with corn, beans, and tomatoes in a salad. We usually get the pads in our CSA share a couple of times in early summer.

We stayed pretty low - hiking with a baby in the cold is only a good idea for so long. There's a trail all along the ridge line of the range that's probably pretty cool. Here are a couple shots of the Sandias, first the sunny side of the mountains:


And the shady side - you can still see a bit of snow:


Apart from the bit of snow, pretty standard looking southwest, but still good to get out and hike - especially the day after a Thanksgiving feast...