Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve

A couple weekends back we went on a drive to Pecos, ended up on a little mountain journey before finding Pecos, toured the ruins and then headed to Harry's Roadhouse for food at the recommendation of the park ranger. Harry's Roadhouse ended up being somewhere we'd definitely eat again - I had a veggie burger with beet/feta sauce and arugula and Jeff had a turkey reuben. The whole menu looked good! After that we were driving home and I spotted a bunch of fall colors along the highway and thought I saw a brown park sign. We took the off ramp, went on the frontage road and ended up at the Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve which is managed by the Santa Fe Botanical Gardens. There also happened to be an art installation throughout the area! We had only 45 minutes but managed to see most of it. There was a lot of color and some of the "art" was kind of cool. After having hail in the mountains it was nice to have sunshine and this is a peach of a place that  I have no idea how you would actually know about it. Anyway, I took some photos of our first fall here. We thought these little ladders were kind of cool - who comes out to play on them at night?

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We loved the jackrabbit complete with the giant ears. the first time we saw a real one we didn't even know what it was!

I didn't photograph it, but there were some installations underwater in the pond. I was enamored with the reflections. So it was a peachy little spot and good find. A very nice spot to stop when returning from places up north. When the colors were really going it would be even nicer but still, how can you beat this?

We are Moving Soon - Final Views Out the Door

Yes, we did just get here a mere 8 months ago but we are on the move again! Fortunately this time it is only a mile or so away and will hopefully be a 5-10 year stop on the Kruse adventure train! Moving is exciting, stressful, and a major pain in the ass. We have a whole lot less stuff than most but it is still a lot of stuff! I digress. The short story is that we are buying a house and have about 2 1/2 weeks left in the rental. We are fortunate enough to be buying a house with spectacular views of the Sandias and a peek a boo view of Cabezon. We will be on top of a mesa, so we won't have the rolling hills view we have now but I am sure the same sunrise and sunset views (minus Cabezone) will be spectacular! Anyway, here are some final views "out the door" from our rental.

Couldn't resist adding our coyote family...I am sure they wander a large range. The little orange patch of changing tree colors on the Sandia Mountains will be our same view in the new house. Lots to look forward too!

Fall Colors in New Mexico

October was a busy month for us.  It was our first Balloon Festival and I didn't expect to enjoy it but boy am I a fan now! We went several times and to fireworks twice. I am already looking forward to next year! Then we started house hunting. We are going to be moving about a mile away at the beginning of December. As always we headed out to new places to see what we could see. Some of our last hikes were searching for fall color. We were probably about 3 weeks too late for the best stuff, but for people who have been away from fall for years we managed to find some really beautiful stuff. Next year we will head to Chamas and take the train for excellent color viewing. This year we had to "settle" for this! Some of these photos are from a hike near Agua Sarca about 8 minutes away, some are from a hike in the Sandias after driving 30 minutes up our road (highway 165), and the others are from our day trip to Pecos (1 hour away).

There are a lot of oak, sumac, poplar, birch, cottonwood and aspen trees. The scenery is spectacular here.