Today, after sleeping in till 10AM, we decided to go on an impromptu hike to Jemez Falls. Well, actually, a DRIVE to the trailhead and THEN a hike. And we took pictures.
Robbie offered to take a picture of some AMAZING red rocks at a gas station (a.k.a. bathroom stop) at Jemez Pueblo:
 |
| Robbie's idea of a good picture |
I was determined to get a better picture on the way back.
We arrived at the trailhead and, after a minute or two of discussion as to which path was actually the trail, decided on this one (which ended up NOT being the main trail and instead being very steep at one point):
 |
| Me, equipped for a more strenuous hike than we ended up encountering |
 |
| Robbie, conquering a tree |
After a very short jaunt, we reached a waterfall:
 |
| Water falling |
 |
| More water |
 |
| Taking a picture of water |
After wandering around a bit at the base of the tiny fall, among the children splashing and college-aged girls "sunbathing" in bikinis, we hiked up the river a bit, scooted down a steep embankment, and discovered a peaceful creek at the top of the falls:
 |
| No bikinis |
 |
| Just water, rocks, and trees |
I took off my shoes, slipped on some old ones, and walked around in the water a bit:
 |
| Action shot |
And took some more pictures:
 |
| So green! |
Robbie, who did not bring old shoes and was unwilling to get his hiking ones wet, stayed in the shallow water:
 |
| "Very nice. For the next one, give me a normal smile." |
 |
| "I thought you said 'an enormous smile.'" |
 |
| "THERE we go." |
Determined to get Robbie into the water, I slipped off my old shoes and tested the creek bed to see how hostile it was to bare feet. It was mostly smooth! So we wandered barefoot up the creek for a bit:
 |
| Happy feet |
 |
| More water and green stuff |
Finally, we wandered back, put on our hiking shoes, and walked along the shore downstream a bit until we came to a HUGE drop with quite a view:
 |
| View |
We had found another fall, and bigger ones at that:
 |
| Inches from death |
I climbed down to the top of the bigger falls to get some more pictures and caught Robbie pretending to be an explorer:
 |
| Epic |
 |
| Peaceful waters before the plunge |
On our drive back toward Albuquerque, we came across another waterfall:
 |
| Putrid-smelling yet beautiful |
You can see here where the water USED to run over (and into) the rocks, until it eventually cut a hole through and started flowing as seen in the picture above:
 |
| Water-carved caverns in the rocks |
We took more pictures:
 |
| Him |
 |
| Her |
And then one of the caverns ate me:
 |
| AHHHH! |
After noticing that there was a group of college-aged kids in swimsuits having a private pow-wow in the back corner of my cavern (awkward), we made our way around and behind the rocks and met the source of the waterfall:
 |
| Less putrid-smelling and more beautiful |
 |
| Ditto |
 |
| I'm running out of captions |
We kept driving and stopped again at Jemez Pueblo for some better pictures of the red rocks:
 |
| Photo credit: Kate |
 |
| Photo credit: Kate |
 |
| Photo credit: Kate |
After that, we finally went home, made some tacos, and watched Return of the Jedi.
It was a good day.
