Exploring the River

We had a seasonal challenge for the day!

Go in search of the pods from the Cottonwood trees!

We went to the Pueblo Montano Trailhead,

which has wood carving sculptures that were made

in honor of the firefighters after the 2003 fire.

The tree logs that had been carved had been damaged in the fire.

The firefighters had an important role in saving property

around the forest along the river. Ironically, the man who

carved these logs a year later was also a retired firefighter.

Two Cottonwood trees are near the firefighter sculpture.
It is the time of year for the pods to be expanding
and ready to drift in the wind!

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Ella wondered why the pods were so high up

on the trees. She could not reach or pose with the pods

on these two trees!

We crossed the acequia and headed for the trail to the river.

On the other side of the acequia there was a tree

against a trail that was higher up!

Its trunk was on a slope below the higher trail.

Ella was excited to be able to get a closer look at the

pods on the Cottonwood tree since she could reach

the higher branches from the raised slope.

May I take home some Cottonwood tree pods? 

Maybe I could grow my own Cottonwood tree!

Toy Sunday: NO!

No! We don't need those pods inside, 

and we live in an apartment!

It is the time of year for trees to be green!

After looking at the Cottonwood tree pods,

we continued down the trail.

We reached the Rio Grande after a short walk.

The river is higher than it is in the winter.
The full, green bushes prevented some view of the river,
but the areas that we can normally walk down to
were also covered with river water.

We tried several places down the southern path,

but this was about as good as our view got down the river.

Our next curiosity was whether or not there

were trails on the north side of the bridge.

Hmm...

There was a small bridge over an acequia stream

under the large bridge for traffic going over the Rio Grande.

We followed the trail along the river

to see if there was another view of the river.

It was not far away. This was my first time in this location,

but it also had the thick greenery to prevent seeing further upriver.

It was fun to be on the north side of the bridge!

The river was still visible a short distance away in the shade.

Why are we leaving? Can you take more pictures of me?

NO!!! I have been eaten by mosquitoes and I need to go to

the drug store and get some insect bite pain reliever and

insect repellent for the next time we go out to play by the water!!!

And for the complete insanity of the photographer,

here is one more photograph from my way out.
Do you see the roadrunner?

I saw it under the bridge. I tried to photograph it,

but it was too dark. I walked further away for the reassurance

of the roadrunner. I did not get a chance to zoom in on it

while it ran into the bushes.

We came to this location particularly to look at the

Cottonwood tree pods, but saw the wood carved road runner

at the beginning of our journey today, and a real one

at the end of our journey.