A Sunday Hike

Sunday was a gorgeous spring day in New Mexico, and after the morning session of conference, the older kids and I headed off for a quick hike in the Sandia foothills. As faithful blog readers know, we have done very little hiking this year, and I have decided to repent. To that end, we drove to the eastern terminus of Copper Avenue to the southernmost trailhead in the city's foothills open space area. There we headed due east, following a series of switchbacks, to the crest of the first major hill, an ascent of a few hundred feet over a mile or so. On the way up, we paused for a drink, and the kids found an enormous Juniper (the plant that is most likely causing my terrible allergies this season):
The trail crests at a pass between the bulk of the mountain to the southeast and a small point called U-Mound (I think named for a tendency among UNM students of yesteryear to cavort here) that rises to the west. We thought briefly about making an attempt to scale it, but decided better. Anyhow, here is U-Mound seen from the south:

On the way back down, we took a side trail that ran parallel to the contour of the foothills. A few spots were rather tricky, but the kids showed their stuff by handling all of it. At one point, Isaac, who has been attacked by cactus twice in his short life and is therefore wary of them, had to pass near a cactus on a downslope. The result is this:

He came away unscathed. The return trip took us across the scrubland that characterizes the flatlands near the trailhead. Here the kids caught a second breath and ran ahead: