Val's Walking Blog: Albuquerque Walk 12 Miles

Saturday morning around 7:15 I left my parents' house on a 12 mile walk. I left the house and walked the ditch banks over the the Nature Center. The ditch banks in the North Valley are one of Albuquerque's best secret beauties. They are shaded cool walking spots. Walking along them you get to peek into the back yards of beautiful and historic homes. The North Valley is also fairly rural - a lot of animals live along the ditch banks. Below are two miniature horses I saw. They are building a neighborhood around the horses' pen, so this was a green patch of a field at the end of a culdesac.

Walking the ditch banks reminds me of walks I use to take with my Grandma Nye and sister when we were small. We would sometimes collect tadpoles and take them home for observation. Then when my parents moved to the North Valley, Brenda introduced me to riding bikes along the ditches. They are nice paths for bikes - flat, wide, and dirt/sand.

You can access the Bosque Trail at the Nature Center, so that is where I got on to the trail. Mile marker 3. The Bosque Trail is paved. The Rio Grande is on the west side of the trail and sometime there are ditches diverting water on the east side of the trail. The section of the trail near the Nature Center reminded me of a walk I took with my mom before I went to library school. We took an early morning walk along the river and saw coyotes running. This was before the Montano Bridge was built. We walked in the area where the bridge now sits and I remember how sad we thought it was that such a beautiful area would soon be destroyed by rushing traffic.

The walk also reminded me of a great bike ride I took on a weekend morning in 1994. It was the balloon fiesta weekend and I rode the trail watching balloons. It was a really quiet trail in those days - hardly any people. It was such a peaceful morning.

This weekend, the trail was very busy. Hundreds of people walking, biking, roller blading. People with dogs, people with dogs riding on their bikes! It was actually a really great walk even with all of the people. Everyone was very polite - very courteous. The trail is so heavily used by bikers, it could be intimidating for walkers, but nearly every biker yelled "on your left" before passing.

I walked down to Paseo Del Norte - mile marker 7.25. The above picture was taken on my way back. In the distance you can see the Sleeping Sisters (old volcanoes). You can also see the river and the anti erosion structure along the river. The Bosque (off the paved trails) is closed right now because of fire danger. There was a fire along the river on Friday and another fire Sunday night. A dangerous time of year.

The pictures below are some images from the ditch bank between Candelaria and Matthew.