Brandon O'Brien

Saturday, April 28, 2007 @ 12:00 PM in Miscellaneous

I'm trying to take one day each week and go on a few mile hike and explore the area around Albuquerque. Today I decided I'd go up to the top of the three extinct volcanoes just west of Albuquerque. They're located in the same Petroglyph National Monument that I went hiking in last weekend.

The day was perfect. There were very few clouds in the sky and it was probably 80 degrees with a little bit of wind. The hike I took went through all 3 of the big volcano cones and was probably about a 3 mile hike. The views were pretty neat from up at the peaks and completely different than what you find down in the city or over at the Sandias.

The hike lasted a couple hours and I took about 140 pics with my Nikon D50. There were very few people out when I was there... in fact, I went about an hour without seeing any other people. It was a nice relaxing hike. I think next week I'm going to hit up the La Luz trail over on the north side of the Sandias.

I uploaded some of the photos I took from the hike. Check them out by clicking on the image above or the photo icon below.

Teaser photos:

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Tags: old blog

Posted from: United States

Sunday, April 22, 2007 @ 12:00 PM in Miscellaneous

Today I was working on some website stuff and kept looking out my window and getting distracted by how nice it was. After wrapping a few things up I decided to take my Nikon D50 out to the Petroglyph National Monument here in Albuquerque to check it out.

I got there at about 2:30 and saw there was a sign in the parking lot saying the gates closed at 5:00. I was thinking about trying to get all the way to the Volcanic cones, but realized that was a lot farther than I had time to go. The temperature was perfect, but it started to cloud over after I had been walking for a while. The hike was mostly on sand with some desert brush and a lot of basalt rocks laying everywhere.

On the rocks there are Petroglyphs that were carved into the rocks from the natives between 1300-1600AD. Unfortunately there has been some vandalism around them (people carving their initials into the rocks next to the petroglyphs), but there are some that have been left untouched. I ended up walking for about two hours, which I'm guessing was probably 3-4 miles (considering I was taking a lot of pictures).

I uploaded some of the photos I took from the hike. Check them out by clicking on the image above or the photo icon below. Also, I did use the appropriate color profile on these, so they're much brighter and vivid than the previous sets I've uploaded.

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Tags: old blog

Posted from: United States

Saturday, April 14, 2007 @ 12:00 PM in Miscellaneous

My parents are in town visiting from Tampa, FL and we planned on taking a hike today in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains here in Albuquerque. The weather had been pretty crappy the last few days (rain and snow) and the weather was calling for today to be nice. We crossed our fingers and hoped the rain wouldn't make the trails all messy and muddy. Luckily by the time we got up to the trails the sun had burnt off most of the water and the clouds had parted.

The weather was pretty much perfect when we got there. It was sunny with a few clouds and probably about 65 degrees. As we were walking I was taking pictures with my Nikon D50 and new Sigma 10-20mm lens. I got some really nice shots and uploaded them to the gallery here. We ended up hiking around 2 miles and got to see some great views (and even a few rabbits).

The trails we hiked at can be reached by going east on Montgomery until it turns into a one lane road (this is past Tramway). Turn left on Glenwood Hills and go about a half mile. Turn right on Trailhead and you'll reach a big parking lot. There were a lot of mountain bikers up there as well as hikers and joggers.

After the hike we drove a little farther south in the foothills to look at some condos I saw online. I'm totally going to have to find a place in the foothills so I can be right at the mountains and trails. If anyone knows of a place around there, let me know.

Teaser photos:

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Tags: old blog

Posted from: United States