Cerrillos, NM

On Saturday when rubberpeace and I met Bandaid we found out that Bandaid had left a box for us in Cerrillos. I have been wanting to get out to Cerrillos Hills State Park and do a little hiking and this was the perfect opportunity. rubberpeace wanted to go to find the new box and there were three other boxes in the area that she hadn't found yet. So we made plans to go on today, we decided to leave at about 7:30am. When Astro D returned from her trip to Las Cruces I called to see if she wanted to join us - she decided to join us and it was set that we would meet at my house and I would drive us to Cerrillos.

At 7:30 this morning everyone was at my house, we loaded the car and headed out. From my house it only takes about 20 minutes to get to Cerrillos. So we had a nice, quick trip and made our first stop at Garden of the Gods so that Astro D and rubberpeace could find Fantastyck Voyagers' Magical Gate. We parked at the pullout and walked back along the road to the gate. Once the box was found they sat down and stamped in. While they were doing that I walked along the fence and took some pictures of sculptures in the field just over the fence. I walked a little ways and came to a gate. It was locked but it had a plastic box (not a letterbox) on it that said "Info", but it was empty. I wondered what it was and I think it is The Garden of the Gods Sculpture Garden. I hope that eventually it is open to the public because the art I saw looked great. I returned to meet the girls and we got the box back in its hiding spot and returned to the car.

We drove the few remaining miles and entered the village of Cerrillos. It was pretty quiet, we saw one very old and hunched over woman sweeping in front of one of the shops. We drove through town and headed out to Cerrillos Hills. Our next stop was near the cemetery. Just past the cemetery was a small pullout and what looked like a trailhead. There was a thick cable and a large rock blocking the trail. We parked here and got the clues for the box that Bandaid left us - A Kiss From Connecticut. It was a pretty easy find and we decided to stamp in the car. It was a nice little stamp and we thank Bandaid for planting it for us. We replaced the box and continued along the road to the pullout near the Escalante Trail.

I was along just for the walk, rubberpeace was looking for two more boxes. One of those boxes is Twinville Trekkers' Who? Who? and the other one is for me to know and you to find out. Astro D has some problems with her knee and wasn't able to actually join us on the trail. So she stayed in the car and entertained herself with the New York Times crossword puzzle. So rubberpeace and I headed out. The beginning of the trail is pretty much all up hill for about a half mile. The rest of the hikes in the park are mostly level with a few areas with inclines. Along the way to the first box (Who? Who?) we saw a bunch of lizards and some wildflowers (Thistle, Indian Paintbrush, Prickly Pear blooms and some little purple flower that I didn't know what it was). The hike started out with the temperatures pretty cool and then the wind picked up and by the end it was getting pretty hot.

We made it to the Escalante and Elkins trail junction and rubberpeace went in search for the box. She found it pretty easy and brought it back to a bench to stamp in. I took pictures while she stamped in and we just talked. She rehid the box and we continued to the other box. It was a pretty good walk and she found the box and stamped in - we talked while she stamped in and once the box was rehidden we started our walk back to the car. The walk back was a lot easier than going.

We got back to the car and found Astro D just doing her puzzle. We made our way back to Santa Fe and talked about the morning. We also made tentative plans for a letterboxing trip to the Los Alamos area on June 17th. Thanks rubberpeace and Astro D for a great morning.