Week 5 of #the100dayproject
Santa Fe hiking tips, and some more flowers.
One of the most appealing things about living in Santa Fe is how easy it is to combine outdoor adventure with urban pleasures. Literally only a couple of blocks from the famed Santa Fe Plaza, Hyde Park Road provides quick access to Hyde Star Park, the Santa Fe National Forest, and the Santa Fe Ski Basin. A visitor can easily hike a challenging mountain trail in the AM, grab a Japanese spa treatment at Ten Thousand Waves that afternoon, and still make it to cocktail hour at the Compound.
For Santa Fe residents, Hyde Park Road is the gateway to many popular hiking and running trails, starting with the Dale Ball Trail System located about a third of the way up the mountain. Just past Ten Thousand Waves and the last subdivision, there are multiple roadside trailheads with small parking lots all the way up to the ski lodge area, where even more trails lead up into the Pecos Wilderness.
All of these trails offer a good morning’s hike. Even better, most of the trails intersect with one another, allowing you to custom-build a long and challenging day hike, especially if your party uses two cars, parking one at the entry and exit trailheads.
Last Friday, we hiked from Borrego Trailhead in Hyde Memorial State Park across and down to Chamisa Trail, one of the first trailheads on Hyde Park Road. The route was between 5.5 and 6 miles, and mostly downhill, with a few brisk climbs. Spring is definitely under way on the mountain! We spotted patches of Rocky Mountain iris leafing up, and the trails were dry, with only a few snow/ice patches at the bottom of ravines when crossing the creek.
As this was a training hike for some overnight backpacks later this spring, we didn’t make too many leisurely stops along the way. I did find an interesting chunk of a fallen piñon branch with lichen:
The grocery store bouquets were still hanging in there, so I decided to do some more loose sketches. This series of flower drawings has been a good way to use alternate media and get away from tight rendering. The daffodils were drawn using a variation on one-line contour drawing over very loosely placed color washes. They have a little bit of a mid-century feeling with purposeful mis-register:
Yesterday was spent going down to ABQ for an annual eye exam. Last evening, once my eyes had finished un-dilating, I completed a little sunset landscape sketch that I had lightly pencilled into my sketchbook last September. I used the snapshot I took that evening as the color reference:
Hope you get the opportunity to get outdoors and enjoy the spring weather!
LOVE the tree! You are so creative!