Quemazon Trail in the Golden Afternoon Light

Finally wrested myself from the Pueblo Canyon Rim-Canyon Rim trails loop and went up the Quemazon Trail as far as Pipeline Road.

The trail tread has been mostly restored since it was bulldozed as a fire break during Las Conchas fire.  Regardless, the mish mash of fallen dead trees to either side of the trail is butt ugly - that is until the golden afternoon sun light shines upon all the devastation.  Somehow, that makes it beautiful.  Yet and still, I wish I had magic powers and could make all the ugly, hacked up timber disappear.   One saving grace is that it's unlikely that mountain lions could bound out at me from all that mess; more likely, they would use the trail like civilized beings.  So, convincing myself of that, I kept looking behind to make sure no predators were tracking me.  Keeps me in the moment, I suppose!

On the way down, I pondered about why Los Alamos Canyon is such a deep, mostly straight canyon while Pueblo Canyon is dissected into multiple branches in its upper reaches.  Los Alamos Canyon is south of the Quemazon Trail while several Pueblo Canyon branches are north.  One Pueblo Canyon tributary wraps right up to where the Quemazon Trail intersects Pipeline Road.  Pipeline Road then parallels that downhill for a while.    All I can figure is that Los Alamos Canyon has a more direct path to follow from the high mountains while the Pueblo Canyon drainage seems to start lower and is broken up by ridges running this way and that.

Near the bottom, I startled at a long, moving shadow to my right.  When I turned, I saw a woman I know. She was just completing the Quemazon Nature Trail loop.  It was late afternoon and we talked briefly as we continued downhill.  She was faster so we said goodbye and she headed off toward Western Area and I toward my car parked at the Quemazon trailhead.