How high can we go?

For fun we decide to go to Sandia Crest.  It is a mountain near where we have been hiking.  Its a full fledged recreation area & National Forest.  It has numerous hiking & biking trails.  Plus a ski slope & sledding area, closed of course.

We decided to drive to the top & see what we can see then try and find a trail to hike on.  After the 14 mile winding / switchback road to the top we got out at over 10,000 feet.  Temperature was 20 degrees cooler than the campground.

We got out to go to the observation area I noticed the thin air right away.  Rita wasn't handling the altitude well and opted to stay sitting in the car.  The kids?  Whole different story they were balls of energy.  I even convinced them they needed to run up the path to the top two or three times.... 

On an interesting note the top of the observation area was covered by a swarm "lady bugs" thousands of them.  We had an in depth discussion on how hard it was them to fly in the thin cool air.  Plus just above us was a cluster of cell and radio towers.  FYI we had a great signal!

After we took in all the views we started the descent to a better altitude for Rita.  We made some poor attempts at geocaching and then found a walking trail.

The trail weaved through the woods and was pretty easy.  Rita joined us and the kids went scampering off the trail and into the woods a number of times.  We had a great day.

Headed back to CC and rest.  Well me & Rita rested.  The kids got the bikes out and walked up the hill in the campground then raced down the hill so they can "drift" stop at the bottom.  Then repeat over and over again.  I was more exhausted just watching them.