Letterboxing in a Ghost Town

Today I did my first major hike since my eye surgery. Thomas, myself and our friend Donna hiked to Glorieta Ghost Town to find a letterbox. Donna is a Physical Therapist from Fort Worth and she usually makes a trip to Santa Fe once a year. I had been wanting to hike to find this letterbox for a while now but I really didn't have the energy for a seven mile round trip hike. Lately I have been feeling better and my energy levels are increasing every day. So today was the day.
We got a late start and arrived at the trail head at about 11:30am. The hike was a little hard - especially since Thomas and I haven't really done any hiking all summer, and Donna is from sea level. We took a leisurely approach to hiking the trail. We stopped often to enjoy each of the meadows we passed. There were so many wildflowers - I guess all the rain we have been having has really helped. The creek that the trail follows for most of the way actually had water in it. We passed a couple of women on the trail and they said they hadn't seen the creek with that much water in a long time. Along the trail we encountered an old car abandoned and rusty. A sign that this trail was used quite a bit.
We were just a little ways from the sign for the Ghost Town when Donna said she needed to stop. She was feeling a little light headed, she was tired and her face was very red. I guess the altitude was beginning to take its toll. So she and Thomas decided to stay behind and I would continue to find the letterbox. I left them sitting on rocks on the side of the trail and I continued on. I made it to the sign for the Ghost Town and found a small shelter and an open area with a firepit. At the edge of the open area was a dilapidated building. After taking a few pictures I continued along the trail. In just a short time I came upon a second old car - just as lonely as the first one. Just a few yards up the trail and to the right was the remains of an old sawmill. I spent a little time taking pictures and thinking about the people that worked and lived up here. It must have been a hard life.

So now it was time to look for the letterbox. I took out my clues and started my search. It didn't take me long to find the box. Glorieta Ghost Town Letterbox placed by HighDesertGlider in July was a nice find after the hike to the Ghost Town. I found a nice spot to sit and relax and enjoy the box. It contained the stamp, logbook, ink pad, pen, a hitchhiker and a disposable camera. I stamped in - took the hitchhiker and got things back into the box. The last thing I did was take a picture of myself and return the camera to the box. After rehiding the box I continued up the trail to find the remains of the old hotel. There isn't much left - just a hole in the ground filled with a bunch of old lumber. I took some pictures and then sat down and relaxed - enjoying the peace and quiet and realizing that I had made a three and a half mile hike and was still feeling pretty good.

After all that I headed back down hoping to meet up with Thomas and Donna soon. I didn't have to go far - I found them sitting at the shelter near the sign for the Ghost Town. It was a quick descent back to the car and we talked about what a great hike that we had just had. It wasn't too hot and the beautiful wildflowers and wonderful meadows were a pleasant surprise. On the way home we stopped and had a little something to eat and we relaxed while discussing our hike.