It was a beautiful sunny day but on the cool side when we left the church. This was the first day of Balloon Fiesta and there were a lot of balloons drifting south from the Fiesta Park. Scott Lake, Eliza Schmid, Pam Bliss, Lucy Silva and Dawn Leach made the trip to the canyon. We left for the canyon about 8:30 AM.
When we arrived at the Forth of July Camp Ground area (about 9:45) there were a few others hiking but the parking lot was almost empty. On our return the parking lot was full and overflowing.
There was some color on the Bigtooth Maples which are abundant in this area but a lot of the trees had already lost there leaves.
We hiked toward the crest on the Fourth of July Trail and then on the Crest Trail until we were at the base of Mosca Peak. This part of the hike is fairly strenuous, as it is up hill all the way. From an overlook near the trail we could see the Rio Grande valley. We took a break and had lunch near Mosca Peak.
On our way back we took the Cerro Blanco Trail back to the forest road and then back to the parking area. This trail is a steep decent in spots but has lots of interesting rocks exposed along the trail (mostly quartz?). We started our return about 3 PM.
Trail map to the Manzano Mts. – stelprdb5416560
Pictures by Scott Lake
