One of the things I most enjoy about my girlfriend is her sense of adventure. And there have been times when she was quite the trooper. She often told me she was going to take me to Albuquerque so I could witness the “calming” and “true beauty” of the southwest. We decided to go during the balloon fest of 2012 which is something we both wanted to do and while there we would hang out and have dinner with some friends of hers with whom she had met some years earlier that lived in Taos. A beauty all its own for a different time.
We started doing some research about things to do while there and came across a place called “the tent rocks” aka Kasha-Katuwe. I had actually heard about this place and always wanted to check it out so it was definitely a bonus! Now, if anyone’s ever been to Albuquerque one would know that there is so much vastness there that driving 3 hours is typical to get to one place! Unfortunately one could spend quite a bit more time if you take a wrong turn. That was a tough lesson! But we finally made it to the tent rocks 5 hours later and luckily we left early enough that morning so we still had plenty of time to hike unfortunately any/all other plans had to be rescheduled. At first we didn’t realize how far the hike was but as we saw other hikers/adventurers coming down the foot of the trail we figured “if they can do it, so can we”.
There were maps of trails posted and duration times with mileage so we wandered around the base of the trail for a bit since there were other things to check out but after a half hour of that we decided to make the trek to the top.
It was approximately 1.5 miles to the tent rocks, unbeknownst to us, those weren’t at the summit of the hike! After about an hour of the trail we started to get a bit “overheated”. Her face was getting quite red and my shirt was getting quite sweat soaked; but we ventured on.
By the time we reached the top we were exhausted. I thought she was going to have heat exhaustion by how red her face was, and happy that we remembered to bring a bottle of water! We rested a bit at the top and took in the beauty she was referring to! Yes, it truly is “calming”. And with every obstacle including the heat I was so proud of her that she didn’t want to stop and turn around.
Once we gathered ourselves, we headed back down. We saw a few other hikers/adventurers and thought how most of them wouldn’t make it. There were a few bit overweight couples and also a few couples with kids; there was even a guy pushing along a stroller. Yea, he wasn’t going to go far.
When we finally got back to the bottom, we looked at each other and asked, “where to next?”
