Things I Have Enjoyed This Week

[5 min read]

Bandelier National Monument

I love Bandelier National Monument so much. If you’ve never been, I highly recommend going to check out the cliff dwellings.

It’s only about 45 minutes away from Santa Fe. It’s an incredibly beautiful place.

Maybe my favorite thing about it is that it’s easy to find solitude. The national parks are more popular than ever these days and you often have to take a tram or bus to a trailhead, then wade through the strollers and the selfie takers (don’t mind if they do!) for what seems like forever. Sometimes you have to go an hour down a trail before the people start thinning out. But at Bandelier, even when the main part of it is packed, 5 minutes down the right trail and you won’t see another human for the rest of the day. So I went for a hike there. It was indeed pretty busy down by the visitor center. But I turned away, started up the switchbacks. I hiked for 4 hours without seeing a soul. Just me and the mountains and the animal tracks and scat and the junipers and piñons.

Bliss.

☝️The pointy one is Boundary Peak. It’s the demarcation between the Bandelier Wilderness and the national forest. I think.

☝️View toward the Sangre de Cristos. The cliff in the foreground is where the Rio Grande cuts through.

Side note: Apparently the average juniper lives about 300-700 years, some well over 1000. So when you see a dead one, like in that Georgia O’Keefe painting, you have to wonder how long it’s been there, what all it’s seen. They’re so beautiful and striking in life and death.

Sunrise in the Mountains

Moonshadows

Cat Stevens said that he had always heard about moon shadows, but had never seen them because England just has too much light pollution. Then he was on a vacation in some remote part of Spain and finally saw them and was ecstatic. So he was inspired to write the song Moonshadow, and that’s why it’s such a positive song—“the optimist’s anthem” as he put it. He was just so thrilled about the phenomenon.

I guess I never really thought about it even tho I’ve been listening to that song for what seems like my entire life. But after moving to New Mexico and living out in the county where there are no street lights and the general light pollution is so low that we can see the Milky Way spray from our driveway, we now see moon shadows all the time. It’s kinda crazy. When you take a photo on a night where the moon is full or close to it, it almost looks like daylight. It never gets old.

☝️👇These photos look weird, but I didn’t do anything to them. I guess that’s just what the iPhone ai does to the photos when it’s trying to make sense of things?

This Deer Scared the Shit Outta Me

Almost literally. I was walking a narrow trail that was very much a tree-tunnel, zoned out, looking at the ground so I wouldn’t trip. Suddenly there was a crashing sound and this guy bounded down the hill, across the creek and then up the hill on the other side. It was so loud. He must have been only a few feet from me.

Coincidentally, I was listening to Alex Goldman’s excellent new podcast, Hyper Fixed, specifically this episode about trying to track down the origin of a button that says “Ask me about our new diarrhea-inducing chili cheese fries.” I highly recommend it. Fun!

When the Angels Lift Our Eyelids in the Morning

Great song by Devin Davis. It’s been a mild obsession for years.

Apple Music • Spotify

More Owls

I’m getting good at spotting these guys. Same area, same time of day, same back and forth calls from across the hills. Usually I see one of the pair and only hear the other. Pretty sure we’re friends now.

What did you enjoy this week? I’d love to know. Leave it in the comments - thanks!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK! ✌️❤️🤘

Your pal,

Robert

2024 / Dec 9 - 15