Letterboxing and Book Arts in Los Alamos

Today Astro D invited me for a day in Los Alamos. The plan was for a little letterboxing, some lunch and a book arts show at the libraray. I was looking forward for a day away from my normal routine.

Deer Trap at Deer Trap Mesa

I met Astro D at her house and we were on the road at about 9:30am. We had a nice drive up to Los Alamos and headed for our first stop. We decided that while it was cool out we would go on a little hike and look for a letterbox. So we made our way to the trail head for Deer Trap Mesa. We parked and took the trail passing the deer trap and climbing over some rocks with toe holds. After the rocks (which is the only hard part of the trail) the trail levels out and is an enjoyable hike with great views. We saw quite a few wildflowers including Yucca and Indian Paintbrush.

Indian Paintbrush

At about a half mile the trail splits and we took the south arm of the trail. In no time we had reached the end and the area of the letterbox. We stood at the end of the mesa and read the clues and looked at a picture to determine the location of the box. I followed some landmarks and did some searching but was having trouble finding the box. You know there are a lot of dead trees and live trees mixed together so I just had to search until I found the right group of trees. It only took about 10 minutes to find the box and then find a nice shady place to sit and stamp in. We stamped in to Second Saturday Seekers: Leave No Trace. It had gotten a little warm on top of the mesa without any trees to shade us but it was okay. After stamping in and replacing the box we made the trip back to the car.

View from Deer Trap Mesa

After our little hike and letterbox hunt we decided to head out for a little lunch. So Astro D drove us to Daniel's Cafe and we had some great sandwiches and a nice relaxing sit and visit.

Book Art

Once we were done with lunch we headed over to Mesa Public Library to see a book arts exhibit. The exhibit we went to see was Bound Under the Influence by Suzanne Vilmain. This was a wonderful exhibit and had some great pieces. We spent about an hour going through everything wishing that we could pick up some of the books and thumb through them. We finished going through the exhibit and then decided to head back to Santa Fe. On the way out of town Astro D stopped and a mini golf course and park so that I could find a box that she had already found. It was a quick and easy to find J Letterbox. We sat on a bench while I stamped in. Once this box was back in place we made our way back to Santa Fe. It was another enjoyable day letterboxing with Astro D.