Hike Tram trail to Lower LaLuz trail - part 1

The Tram trail starts not unexpetedly at the Sandia Tram parking lot.

The Tram trail goes form the tram parking lot, and winds across the Sandias foothills over to the LaLuz trail junction / trailhead.

The day that I decided to take this hike, it was nothing short of perfect. The temperature was in the mid -60's and a light breeze. In the exposed areas, the sun made it just a bit on the warm side, but in the shady areas, and later in the afternoon, it was absolutely perfect. In prior days, there had previously been some snow.

After I reached the canyon where LaLuz goes up the mountain, I noticed quite a bit of snow on the trail, from 3 to 6 inches in places along the ledge that looks pretty steeply down about 50 to 100 feet down into the canyon.

Walking along that ridge with the snow, you can see some of the LaLuz trail switchbacks across the canyon. The trail goes along for several hundred feet and then crosses over to the other side of the canyon where the LaLuz trail is located. There's a sign at the junction place.

While hiking up the LaLuz trail, I met several hikers. They all were turning back slightly higher than where I was hiking at the time. Apparently there was thick ice at that point and beyond in such a way that made hiking on the trail unsafe, so I decided to turn around too.

Looking north you can see up the North Sandia Mountains where the Piedra Lisa trail goes. That's a trail that I want to hike that trail in the fall of 2016.

I also want to hike the LaLuz trail to the crest next year when there isn't ice and snow on the steep sections near the top.

The view from out on the snowy ridge is pretty good. you can see for quite a ways on a clear day.

I hiked back and arrived about 5PM. Unfortunately, Perl the wonderdog rolled in some wild animal poo, and smelled like it too! So when we got back to the trailhead, I needed to get her wrapped up in a towel which we keep in the back for dog emergencies like this one. She rode in my lap as my wife drove us back to the house, where I was able to give her a much needed bath, where I had to shampoo her fur and rinse it out, and then shampoo her fur again, because the first shampooing didn't get all of the stink out. Ug.

Unfortunately, I left my good trekking poles near where the car was parket while I was preoccupied with Pearl to make sure that she didn't get any poo on our "new" car interior. When I went back there the next day, the poles weren't anywhere to be seen.

I was still able to get plenty of good pictures, and had plenty of good exercise. It was a good day to take a hike in the beautiful Sandia mountains, and a good day to be alive.

I did have to shell out another $85 at REI for replacement trekking poles like the ones that I left where I was sitting and waiting for a ride. I guess I will need to be more careful with my trekking poles in the future.