Labor Day Hike in the Sandias

On Labor Day we decided to head to a popular trail called "La Luz". It starts on the Albuquerque side of the Sandias and heads up to the Crest. One day after work earlier in the summer we tried to hike it but we got a late start and didn't get to the top. (that seems to be a theme for us). Here is the link to that time around: http://melssweetlife.blogspot.com/2013/06/la-luz.html

Well apparently this trail was more popular than we realized because there were TONS of cars at the trailhead, even more on the road leading to the trailhead, and more people heading that way as we were deciding what to do. Of course we chose an option with less people involved. We drove around the mountain to the crest, parked there and headed north along the crest. It was quite the view!

Part of me maybe hoped that this option meant less work, but eventually the trail lead down the mountain which meant we had to go back up in order to get to our car :( We did some of our classic bushwhacking to get back up the mountain because we were tired of the "hilly" up and down trail we were on. Making our own trail by heading straight up the mountain where they had cleared most of the trees for the power lines was a brilliant but exhausting idea.