Bandelier

Saturday I decided to go for a drive. 220 miles later I found myself back at my apartment. I ended up driving up NM 14, just on the East side of the Sandias....ended up going through Madrid, and then found myself up in Santa Fe. Well, at this point, I'd only drove for an hour and a half or so...it was only 11:30, so I headed west towards Los Alamos and the Jemez Mountains. I finally got in that direction and started to follow signs to Bandelier National Monument. It was pretty amazing down there, and there were some good sites too. I did some hiking beyond the normal trails, but I didn't go too far. It was starting to get cold, the place closed at 4:30, and I didn't have a flashlight of any kind. It was a good time though, I enjoyed being out.

Paseo del Volcan

Yesterday morning, with nothing to do but clean my apartment and do laundry, I decided to go for a hike. I've wanted to go out to the volcanoes on the west mesa here in Albuquerque since I got out here. I had heard that it was rattler country out there, so I decided to wait until it got cold. Well, my last trip almost pushed it to where it was too cold to go for a hike...at least with the clothes I've got here. However, it was one of the nicest days I've seen out here. From a bunch of the pictures, you can see that the clouds were perfect fall like whispy clouds. Great for pictures. I've messed with these images all a little bit to bring out the blue in the sky and the yellow grass that was all around the place. But, my camera really didn't capture how blue the sky really was that day, so I figure it's ok to tweak the pictures a little bit. Some other pictures from the hike are on the media page.

Most Recent Trip

I went on a trip for work a few weeks ago and was lucky enough to get to do some sight seeing. Here are a few of the pictures from the trip. I'd have to say, it was cold as hell from the top of the mountain where these pictures were taken from.

El Malpais

I was pretty bored today, so I decided to head out to El Malpais (the badlands) about 70 miles west of Albuquerque just south of Grants, NM. It's in the "shadow" of Mt. Taylor, an extinct volcano. The badlands are made up of the remenants of a lava flow from the volcano, but there are some pretty cool sand stone formations in the area. I hiked the La Luz trail again yesterday (for the 4th time) and my legs were pretty beat, so I was going for the low hanging fruit, in terms of views. And there were almost no people in the area, so I didn't want to try to get myself lost in a place with minimal contact to the outside world. I would have to say though, that it is a really neat place to go, at least once.

Black Rock Desert

Last weekend I took a few days off from work, flew out to LA to meet with my USRPL buddies, and we drove up to Black Rock Nevada for Balls 17, the best experimental amateur rocketry launch in North America at least, probably in the world. Well, our rockets definitly flew, however we managed to rip the fins off when the rockets were about 1 second from the end of the motor burn. It's unfortunate, but all we have to do is shore up the structures, put one rocket on top of the other, and we'll be putting something into space. These launch videos are awesome. And the pictures are amazing. You should check out more at USCRPL.com .


Silver Spur 2B Flight from David Reese on Vimeo.



Turbo Encabulator from David Reese on Vimeo.

La Luz Trail Part II

Last Sunday I hiked back up the La Luz trail. I didn't take my camera...it looked like a pretty gloomy day, and it definitely was. I got going at about 9 in the morning, two hours later than my first hike up the trail. But, I got going, it was cloudy above me and I kept on going. There was a good down pour about 5 miles into the hike, and it was misty until well....it was misty for the rest of the hike. Luckily, I was smart enough to bring long pants, those pants that you can go from shorts to pants, and a sweat shirt. It would have been better if it was a rain coat...but I wasn't completely soaked to the bone, and I mate it the rest of the way up. All in all, it was a fun hike, and I'm pretty out of shape, so my legs started to finally feel better today. I'm hoping to go up at least one or two more times before it gets chilly.

La Luz Trail

I went for the hardest hike of my life today. I was completely not ready and I'm totally out of shape. I climed up to the Sandia Crest via the La Luz Trail, which is anywhere from 8% grade to 16% grade consistently through the trail. The trail itself is 7 miles long and gains 4,000 feet in elevation from 7,000 to 11,000 feet above sea level. But that wasn't the entire part of it for me. I started at the tramway, so that added 3 miles, then I hiked along the Sandia Crest for 2 more miles to get to the tram down the mountain, instead of hiking back down, which would have killed me. But, it was pretty amazing, and I'm stoked that I made it the entire way. I hope that I'll have the time and the motivation to go up the trail one or two more times while I'm here in Albuquerque...and I'll be more prepared.