SparkPoints: (111,482)
Fitness Minutes: (89,707)
Posts: 8,627
6/15/12 7:32 P

I bought Oreo a pair of those doggie boots and she loved them after a few minutes of getting use to them. The only problem, they lasted one hike and started tearing so I bought some tougher demin material for the outside and a soft cotten for the inside and made her a couple of new pairs.

current weight: 125.0

125 125 125 125

125

Posts: 119
6/6/12 12:02 P

thanks for the info

More stuff to add to the list, this is going to be fun. At least I don't think we'll be sitting around wondering what to do.

Hopefully by the time we hit NM we'll be adjusted to the altitude. We're going to be at 8,000 feet about a week before we head that direction.

I saw something about a running group in Santa Fe that lets people from out of town run with them. I'd do it but I'm afraid that there is no way I could keep up with locals and would just embarrass myself.

Pounds lost: 6.0

0 8.25 16.5 24.75

33

Posts: 14,305
6/6/12 11:00 A

If you are planning on going down to the Albuquerque area Sandia Peak is a great place to drive up to the top of and there are some trails all over the side of the mountain. It is a high elevation though so be careful about adjusting to altitude. There is a scenic route, instead of I -25, between Santa Fe and right outside of Albuquerque to the east (like maybe 10 miles out side Albuquerque in Tijeras Canyon that is about an hour or a little longer to drive. It's called the Turquoise Trail and is paved all the way through the area. It goes through the little town of Madrid which is a scenic little town and was featured in the movie "Wild Hogs" with John Travolta Tm Allen, Martin Lawrence, and William H. Macy who are going through a mid-life crisis and decide to go on a motorcycle trip although they had little experience on motorcycles and none on motorcycle road trips. They end up in the town of Madrid. I don't know if you've seen the movie but it's pretty funny the things they get themselves into.

Here's also a link to fire information in Arizona and New Mexico that gives updates on current fires and also has a link to a map that shows where they are along your route. Since fires break out here in NM almost daily check it or some other site frequenty to get an idea on smoke an dother conditions. Hope all goes well and you don't run into smoke problems. It depends so much which direction the winds are blowing and whether smoke will stay up high or come down lower. We've had good days and bad days here in the southwestern part of the state and I know Albuquerque has had problems off and on and a lot of other parts of the state. At times it's traveled further north of Albuquerque up past Santa Fe to the Las Vegas (NM) area. I'm hoping that during your trip the winds will be very cooperative and not interfere with your plans. But my suggestion would be to keep your plans flexible and have maybe a couple or so different ideas in mind in case the air quality is not good.
Hope this helps you.

151,614 SparkPoints

Posts: 119
6/6/12 9:24 A

I had a feeling that was the case with the little dog shoes. Plus I think DH might set his foot down. Bodie does really well with his little backpack though. He carries his own water and cleanup bags. Plus a dog on a trail with a backpack gets a lot of attention which he's all for.

Pounds lost: 6.0

0 8.25 16.5 24.75

33

Posts: 33,952
6/5/12 12:37 P

Good luck getting Bodie to WEAR those cute little dog boots - I've tried to get several dogs used to them and they act like their legs are broken. I even tried putting one on the left front paw and another on the right back paw to try to confuse one of my dogs and she tried to hop on two legs to avoid using the feet with the boots - too funny!! I've been told you need to start them as little puppies to get them used to wearing them.

With that said, the lava is sharp and can easily tear up their feet so you do need to be careful - in fact, they can tear up YOUR feet if you are wearing thin soles! And don't fall because it's nasty stuff. But I don't mean to sound discouraging because it's lots of fun and I've hiked on lava many times, will do it again, etc. Just have to be a little more careful than on other surfaces!

You will have such a wonderful time - wish I could sneak into your family for awhile, haha!

Pounds lost: 17.5

0 8.75 17.5 26.25

35

Posts: 119
6/5/12 12:17 P

I love this area, it's wildly different from what I'm used to. My family lives out there but I grew up in the mountains of NC. Views like you get out there are so vast it almost hurts you eyes. The first time I took DH out there he kept saying that we needed a better map. I figured out that he thought the state map I had was missing some roads. I had to break it to him that there just aren't that many roads compared to the east coast.

I'm leaning towards El Malpais National Monument as our stop along the way to Santa Fe. They allow dogs - well behaved ones so that's a problem haha. There is a warning about not taking them out on the lava because the rocks could hurt little feet, but it looks like we could work around that.

I wonder how long it would take Bodie to destroy those little dog boots I've seen at REI.

Pounds lost: 6.0

0 8.25 16.5 24.75

33

Posts: 33,952
6/5/12 12:09 P

I love the area you're visiting so I would have more trouble narrowing down where I want to go instead of trying to find something interesting - I've been through the area quite a few times and plan to go again - in fact, I just drove thru part of it last week!

The Petrified Forest/Painted Desert is a great place to visit but dogs can only go on the paved trails in national parks so it's not a good hiking destination - however, there are a number of nice paved trails you can walk and get a mile or two at a time so you'll have some interesting options. It's so beautiful, I made a point of just driving through it on my last trip, even though I didn't have time to get out of my car for more than a minute or two at a time.

You've gotten some great ideas already but thought I'd add that there is a TON of fantastic hiking right around Flagstaff including Walnut Canyon and Sedona - in New Mexico, there's Taylor Peak, the Sangre de Cristo Mtns [a good website for some hikes in that area is www.sdcmountainworks.com/hiking/trails.php
].

Some good books with detailed hiking info for the general area include:
* 100 Classic Hikes in Arizona
* Great Sedona Hikes: The 50 Greatest Hikes in Sedona, Arizona
* Best Hikes with Dogs Arizona [covers the whole state, not just the northern areas]
* 60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Albuquerque: Including Santa Fe, Mount Taylor, and San Lorenzo Canyon
* Best Easy Day Hikes Santa Fe, 2nd Edition
* 100 Hikes in New Mexico 3rd Edition
* Hiking Northern Arizona, 3rd: A Guide to Northern Arizona's Greatest Hiking Adventures

You can find all of these on Amazon and maybe in libraries, esp in the area you'll be going. Some are available as Kindle books, which you can read on a computer or smart phone without having an actual Kindle device.

I hope you have a fantastic time - wish I could go with you [and so do my dogs, haha!]

Pounds lost: 17.5

0 8.75 17.5 26.25

35

Posts: 119
6/5/12 11:33 A

OOH awesome thanks

off to the Google

Pounds lost: 6.0

0 8.25 16.5 24.75

33

Posts: 2,804
6/5/12 10:24 A

I'm assuming you're taking I-40 back to Albuquerque and then north to Santa Fe on I-25. There is a lot to see along that route, depending on what you're interested in. If you are interested in Native American stuff, you could visit Acoma Pueblo; it's just off I-40 in New Mexico and really awesome. The Malpais Lava Beds are also just south of 40 at El Malpais National Monument and Bluewater Lake is also south of 40 in NM. If you're more interested in seeing stuff in town, Oldtown in Albuquerque is a fun place to visit. Or if you are really more interested in hiking, there is Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National Monument near Cochiti Lake (just west of I-25 and south of Santa Fe). They have a great hiking trail with really cool rock formations. Also, there are wonderful Native Americans ruins and nice hiking trails at Bandelier National Monument. There is a lot to see between the two cities; just depends on what you want to do.

Enjoy your trip!



Edited by: SWDESERTLOVER at: 6/5/2012 (10:25)

May Minutes: 315

0 125 250 375

500

Posts: 119
6/5/12 10:07 A

I'm about to embark on a really long road trip to Flagstaff. We're staying in Santa Fe for a couple of days on the way back for some alone time. The Flagstaff swing involves a LOT of family. It's 6 hours so we have some time that day to do something along the way, but I just don't know what. The dog is a complicating factor knocking out Sunset Crater and a few other not so dog friendly places.

I thought about Pikes Peak and mapped it - uh yea not so much on the way - whatta moron.

Does anyone know of anything that we could do along the way?

I thought maybe the Petrified Forest unless we end up doing that with the family.

thanks

Pounds lost: 6.0

0 8.25 16.5 24.75

33