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New Mexico is beautiful.
On Tuesdays on this blog, I’ve been featuring beautiful outdoor spaces. Today I want you to come along with me to a very pretty place with a sinister name, Diablo Canyon.
The backstory is that my friend Amy, the one I’ve known since high school, is moving back to the Midwest. Before she goes, she told me she wanted to check out this canyon she’d read about – she found a passage about it from the Sierra Club’s Guide to Day Hikes in Santa Fe. I’d never been either.
That passage turned out to be very helpful. Exact directions to get to the canyon (take a left at the first fork in the road, travel 4 miles on the dirt road past the green windmill frame, etc), tips about the conditions (don’t go if it’s been raining), it had a little history, pointed out some birds to look for, mentioned that it’s a better winter hike because it’s about 10 degrees warmer in the canyon than in Santa Fe. It was a handy guide that promised a short but spectacular hike.
We set out on a perfect fall day.
The path was along a sandy arroyo (an arroyo is a water ditch), between the towering cliffs where there were lots of people rock climbing:
The reason you don’t want to hike this after the rain is because it’s no fun to walk through wet sand.
There are some rocks to hop over at the beginning of the hike, but then the rest of the hike, it’s like walking through a dry river bed. Passing formations like this one:
I didn’t look up the history of why it’s named Diablo Canyon, but it’s probably more than one reason. For one, it’s remote. Two, there’s definitely a big danger of flash floods during the monsoon season. The rock formations are imposing. The river can be dangerous even when it’s not monsoon season.
But as far as a day hike in October goes, Diablo Canyon is totally misnamed. It was not a difficult hike, certainly not dangerous in any way.
The guide book said it would take an hour and a half to reach the river, which was spot on. So it was a three hour hike round trip.
Look who we found along the way:
It’s a tarantula, they are migrating through northern New Mexico right now. Well, migrating isn’t quite the right description. It’s mating season, so the males are out and about looking for females. They live here all year, but residents usually only see them twice a year – spring and fall – so it appears that they are migrating.
They are very gentle spiders. This guy froze when we walked up with our cameras, which was awesome, like he was posing. In reality, we probably scared the crap out of him. He may be a big spider, but we are still much, much bigger than he is.
We let him get back to his business of finding a mate, and continued on:
See those yellow trees? We knew that’s where the river was.
Cottonwoods love to grow along the Rio Grande.
Aaaahhhh, the Rio Grande. The perfect place to stop and have a snack, and enjoy the views.
This is what it looked like downriver:
Upriver:
And across:
Pretty, right?
We had snacks and drank water while sitting along the riverside. It was so nice. Eventually, we turned around.
We could see the Santa Fe ski basin off in the distance:
The trees out here are nuts. They will grow anywhere (well, try to grow):
Crazy trees growing out of rocks.
You have to admire their enthusiasm for life.
More pretty formations on the way back to the car:
I highly recommend this hike in the fall and winter. It was flat the whole way. Dry sand is not difficult to walk on. The views are amazing. Chilling by the river was lovely.
If you decide to go, it’s important to be prepared – Amy and I had plenty of water and food for a day hike. The New Mexico sun is intense, even in October, no one should go anywhere without water. We also had sunscreen – there is not much shade until you get to the river.
Also be prepared for it to be a little crowded. We saw lots of jeeps and four-wheel drive vehicles, and there a couple of dozen rock climbers, we passed maybe ten or so other people hiking back to the river. We even had a funky looking helicopter fly right over us. So it’s not terribly secluded.
But it was still awesome.
The rock climbers were still at it when we got back to the trailhead:
Eeeee!
I hope you enjoyed this tour of a Northern New Mexico hike. If you have any questions about how to get there, let me know.
Thanks Amy, for the suggestion. I’ll miss you, girl!
I’ll be back tomorrow, hope to see you here.
Yeah, I could get used to this setting:
What a gorgeous place to dine!
I got the image from Pinterest. It had been posted on the Style Files website (along with some other fabulous outdoor dining scenes). They cited the photo originally came from Elle Decor, but I did not fact check them.
Swoon!
My, oh my, that view!
I love the all white decor – it’s clean, it’s modern. But I would probably add splashes of color if this were my place. Maybe a bright tablecloth or colorful placemats. A plant or two. Still, it’s stunning.
I got the image from Pinterest. It was sourced from home-designing.com. There are more photos of this villa in Greece (they do have a plant or two) on their site so follow that link. Thank you to whoever created such a beautiful space – I love your look!
I’ll be back tomorrow, hope to see you here.
What do you think? Is this lovely or nerve-racking or both?
It’s hard to say without seeing the wider view – the way the photo was shot makes me nervous, which I’m guessing was by design.
But I love the idea of dining with that view. It’s very Appalachian, isn’t it?
I got this image from Pinterest. It was sourced as coming from Soderbergagentur.com. But I’m not sure which photographer to credit. So I’ll just throw a general “thanks for sharing your interesting photo” out there to the Internetland.
I’m not sure how comfy those seats would be, but I still like this space a lot. It looks like a welcome respite from the heat. It’s kinda romantic, too, with old world charm.
I found the photo on Pinterest. It was apparently from notmybeautifulhome.tumbler. I’m not sure where this space is, or who took the photo. So thank you to whoever’s space this is – it’s nice to see it!
I’ll be back tomorrow, hope to see you here.
Aaaahhhhh, this is gorgeous!
I got the photo from Pinterest. Here is a link to the article written about the back yard in the July 2005 issue of Southern Living Magazine. According to the article, the landscape architect was Harold Leidner of Dallas and Pool Environments in Plano, Texas. Read the piece, particularly if you’re interested in how he decided which plants to use.
Nice work, Harold! I’m a big fan.
I could kick it here with friends and family, no prob.
Oh yeah, that’s awesome!
I found the photo on Pinterest. It came from www.style-files.com. You can see more of the house by clicking here. It’s beautiful.
Aaaaahhhhh, this takes me away:
It’s not the photo itself or the table decor that draws me. It’s the emotions I feel looking at it. I can imagine it so clearly…family and good friends, cheeses, breads and fruit, a gorgeous view.
There’s something about sharing a meal outdoors that makes me feel like we’ve got it pretty good in this lifetime. Tugs at my heartstrings a little bit.
(I found the photo on Pinterest, it is credited to Lonny.com, but I don’t know where they got it from, who took the photo, or where the location is.)
I think this outdoor living room is pretty!
And I can actually give credit where credit is due. I got the image from Pinterest, the photo was featured in this article, the designer was Los Angeles designer Brian Patrick Flynn. Nicely done, Brian – I like your style! Thanks for sharing!
This makes me wish I lived in the Midwest again, and not the Southwest. I love how the plants look established (and not planted moments before the photo shoot – although there’s nothing wrong with that). I love the red. Love the cozy lighting. Love the setting. Love the barn in the background.
The only thing I don’t love is not knowing who to give credit to for the design or the photo. I got the image off Pinterest but have no idea how it got there.
To the owners of this property, whoever and wherever you are, well done! Now, will you invite me over for dinner, please?
Good To Grow 