I rounded out the trip to Albuquerque with an abbreviated excursion of the La Luz Trail in the Sandia Mountains, just northwest of the city. I don’t even remember how I decided on that specific trail, but a man I chatted with in the parking lot when I’d finished informed me I’d chosen one of the best hikes in the region, and I could see that being the case.

Ollie and I made it to a good lookout for a sunset timelapse, set up my phone, went a bit further. Realized doing a full sunset lapse would have us hiking down in the dark (lol duh, right? 😂) so went back for the phone and started hoofing it down the mountain (in my… rainboots??), except the sunset was really doing work so I had to keep stopping for pictures.

We made it to the parking lot just as it got properly dark [prayer hands]. Didn’t have such great luck with timing for dinner– by the time I got checked into my motel and set out for food everything was closed. Settled for an Impossible Whopper from Burger King at the motel, which I secretly wasn’t so upset about.