Leaves, Then Metal

The aspens, I was warned, peaked last weekend. And the forecast calls for gray and thunderstorms tomorrow (where are we again?). So, this morning, we headed up to the Santa Fe Ski Basin. They run the chair lift for a few weeks this time of year for the leaf-peepers. The drive up was pretty amazing, even though it was clear that we were past peak; seems to be a pretty narrow window.

Parked, got out, checked out the lift, reconsidered the hike down versus the ride down, and got our round-trip tickets. And got on the lift.



The ride was maybe ten minutes up, skimming the treetops. Took us a while to get used to it, neither of us ever having been on a ski lift before (and figuring that the ground was much further away than when it's covered with snow).

Disembark at the top, around 11,000 feet. And cold. It's been cooling here, but the altitude and the wind — we were unprepared, basically, And my autumnal denial outfit of shorts with fleece wasn't the best choice. A few other people at the top. But the views were just amazing. The city below was covered by clouds, the remaining aspens dotted the trees around.



After a few minutes, headed back down.







The grill was open at the base, got some hot chocolate and stretched out in the sun, watching the hikers with their dogs.

The drive down gave us a few more spectatular sights.



Back home, download the photos and clear the camera, change, and head north to the town of Española (Spaña) for Spañapalooza. Ryk, our friend from the local comic group, was involved in the organization of this event (primarily for the local kids), which took place in a town park. (Note, by this time, and at a lower altitude, it was getting hot).

We'd heard about, but hadn't yet seen, Ryk fronting his band GLORYHORDEORCHESTRA.



We arrived just before their set, and kind of continued to hang out with Jarrett at the True Believers table, which was about 15 feet from the speakers. A good vantage point to stay for the DJ and more metal bands. There were a whole bunch of tables from community organizations in one half of the park. We spent the afternoon over in the music area giving away comic stuff and enjoying the theatrics of GLORYHORDEORCHESTRA, poetry from a particpant in the National Poetry Slam, a pretty large skate park, and, after a while, a respectable mosh pit: