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If you know what you're looking for, you can just barely make out La Bajada mesa just right of center. It wasn't hard to make out in person even though it was small, but it's teeny in this picture. The Cerrillos Hills Historic Park was run by local volunteers as a nonprofit until 2009. As of 2010, it's a State Park. We spoke to the ranger and look forward to trying out some of the activities they've got planned for the spring; night walks, herpetology walks, and historical tours. The first wildflowers are out, I wish I knew the names. Mostly these little yellow guys, but there were also some five-petal pink ones.
We didn't walk too far overall, probably 3 miles or less, but it was very much up and down. Felt good to be out and moving around. A storm was approaching from the north. It never quite hit us, but it could have gone either way. Typical scrubby Santa Fe area foothills. It actually wasn't too windy before the storm started moving in - when it's still here, the silence out there can be deafening.
Looking south at the Ortiz Mountains and Sandia Peak behind it on the right, that's just outside Albuquerque and something like 45 miles away from where we were standing. There were several of these at one spot in the trail; they looked like tiny tomatoes, but I don't think they were tiny tomatoes. Still pretty dry and wintery looking, but it was in the 60s and felt warmer when the sun was out from behind the clouds. Some early spring plants, and when the sun hit the junipers or pinyons, the air was heavenly. The little windy road in the photo toward the left is Highway 14, also called the Turquoise Trail as this area was once an important area for turquoise mining. There's still turquoise here, just not a huge mining scene. (The Cerrillos turquoise that I have seen has been light green as opposed to, well, turquoise colored.)
Dropping rocks into an abandoned mine shaft. This one was about 40 feet deep. They're well protected and covered, we weren't worried about the kids falling in or anything. Even if you didn't know about the mining history of the area, the diversity of the rocks on the ground and the colorful stripes/deposits some the hills definitely hint at the geological diversity. Anthropomorphic stick.
We stopped at this vista and picnicked under the sunny/cloudy skies.
   
Photos 1 - 15 out of 25 | Back to Albums
Description: Took my kid and a friend hiking again, the Cerrillos Hills Historic Park is an area on the Turquoise Trail that was part of a thriving mining community a hundred years and change back. Little high desert foothills, expansive views, some early wildflower activity, and little glimpses at mines. (We got to throw rocks into an old manganese mine and a couple for lead and copper.) On the way out of town we went into Cerrillos, a living ghost town. The movie Young Guns was filmed there, and they didn't have to do much besides take down the street signs to make it authentic. (I'll walk around there just to photograph one day.) We stopped at the Trading Post and fed the animals.
Location: Cerrillos, NM

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