Even before I moved out to New Mexico and settled in Albuquerque, I was fascinated with hiking and city parks.
The area I grew up in towards the eastern Midwest was cold but had ample nature preserves that I could enjoy during the years we stayed there. My parents had to sell their company and start working in New Mexico, but it was my decision to attend the University of New Mexico that brought me down to Albuquerque. Before that, we were living in Santa Fe to the northeast. My parents would sometimes plan day trips down to Albuqueruqe via Interstate 25. Sometimes we stopped in Bernalillo on the way down. My dad was a huge fan of mountains and forests, so he would drag my mom, my sister, and I to the Sandia Mountain trails. I was the only one in the family who actually enjoyed being out in the woods to the degree that my father did. Unlike my sister, I was fascinated with exploring. Now that I’m no longer attending college at the University of New Mexico, I’m living in an apartment on Southern Blvd SE adjacent to Manzano Mesa Park. It’s a fairly small park and you can see the Sandia Mountains in the horizon to the east, but at least I can walk down to Manzano Mesa Park from my apartment with a cannabis vape pen in my pocket to unwind for a few minutes. If I really want a day full of hiking, I’ll drive eastward to the Embudo Trailhead or the Three Guns Spring Trailhead for Sandia exploring.