Hiking the Osha Springs Trail from Placitas 6/8/2018

This will be our last hike in the Sandia Mountains as the Forest Service closes it down due to the fire threat.  We have had very little rain since February and the drought has become extreme.  The condition of the forest is so bad, and although we hate to be banned from it, being safe and preventing man-caused fires is the wisest thing to do.

Jennise  planned a hike from the back road in Placitas up  the Sandia Mountains... and I do mean up...on the Osha Springs Trail.  She hikes this often but it was new to us.  And it was a bit warm especially climbing steadily all the way out.  But it was also a good workout, the last one we may get for awhile.  The best parts were the company, as always, looking at the interesting rocks, and the hike being downhill all the way back after lunch!  And to top that off we did have a breeze, so it made it all bearable.

The Hoofers willing to brave the heat: Rose, Annie, Jennise (our leader) and Lynda

Heading out

Northeastern end of the Osha Spring Trail

We had some shady spots and a bit of a breeze

We also had quite the climb

Hiking with my hair up and without a hat made it cooler too

We had some nice views, however they were blurred by the smoke from the NM forest fires

We had quite a rocky trail

Looking back to see how much we have climbed

An extremely large cairn...it was hard to miss the turn in the trail

We didn't see very many fallen trees on this trail, here is one of the few

Looking East

Towards Sangre de Cristos

One of the many cool rocks we saw on this hike.  This one had a nice band of crystal granite stuff or something more scientifically correct

Making great progress in our climb up the mountain

With even more to go

This large boulder that Lynda and I found  had quite a bit of barite crystals in it

We had hopes we would be able to get to the Barite mine, but that would have added at least 2 miles to our hike...maybe someday when it is a bit cooler

 

We saw this cool boulder, the inclusion looked like the continent of Australia (before it completely released itself from Pangea)

Another large fallen tree

Some parts of the trail were not always going up, here was a flat area...thank goodness

Near the side of the trail I saw a small Spruce growing out of a small area of dirt on top of a boulder

I can only hope that it is a hole that goes through the boulder

Some more fallen trees, most of them were quite old, nothing very recent.  I was surprised how good this part of the forest looked

We dubbed this "Frog Rock"  the black spots were sap that had dried but were still a bit sticky

Looking ahead I see the Ponderosa Pines, and Jennise and Annie stopping on the trail...this could only mean we made it to our lunch spot!!

We had a nice shady spot on a rock ledge

There was a large "shelf area" where there were hundreds of shell fossils

On this one you can see the whole shells

Further down the boulder we saw some dried out moss

This moss looked petrified, we also had a discussion of what else it looked like

So Jennise, Annie and Lynda all had Iphones and they were checking out how far we walked. Jennise's said we took 6816 steps and climbed 20 floors

And hiked 2.2 miles!

Annies Iphone said we took 5,957 steps and did 2.5 miles--wow we went further and took less steps! 

Lynda's Iphone claimed we walked the furthest, 2.7 miles! and we took 7,490 steps...but we only climbed 6 floors, Lynda must have found an elevator somewhere!

Enjoying the views while eating lunch

Lunch photo--Rose, Annie, Jennise and Lynda

Under the ledge where we sat for lunch, there was this tiny sapling clinging for life 

A nearby rock had a golden flower imprinted on it  

The ledge we sat on also had a miniature cave which looked like cliff dwellings

Of course the heat could have been having an effect on me

After lunch...the trail back was all downhill and a cooler breeze made the trip down enjoyable

Of course we continued to look at rocks...

Jennise kept finding ones she wanted to carry back home -- her backpack was getting heavier each time she stopped and picked up a rock

 

I asked Jennise to turn around so I could get a picture--she thought I wanted her to take a picture of us

Nearly strangling me -- she grabbed my camera still around my neck and took this shot

Still heading down

On the way down, I found this beautiful colored rock

Jennise said that was the one she found a few weeks ago but couldn't carry it down the hill. I told her it was better than any rock she picked up today and that she should carry it a bit further down the hill each time she comes here to exercise...eventually it will be far enough down that she would be able to carry it only a short distance to her car.  But, she would have to hide it on the side of the trail, as someone else, much stronger would see it and take it home before she got that rock down the mountain.  So if you see this rock, don't take it... it belongs to Jennise!!

Sorry a lot of the Hoofers did not come because of the heat... but it was a doable hike, and I am sure I sweated off a couple of pounds doing it... I will do anything to lose a few pounds... and we had a great time doing it!