We looked over the trailhead sign after yesterday’s canyon walk and saw the now passable dirt road terminated 2 miles away at the Rio Grande. Happily, the extra servings of sand were not an issue and mid morning found us in the chilly waters with many smiles. Not visible from the shore were the plethora of crystals in the waters: we laid in a crystal bath.

A view of the Rio Grande and beyond from where we swam.

We arrived at Calabasas Trailhead a full 10 miles of dirt road and a good bit of paved later to ride some of the La Tierra trails. The La Tierra #6 – #13 (Hustle and Flow), with all the bermed corners and whoop de doos, was the unanimous favorite; first words I heard after: “That was fun!”

To keep things simple, we returned to the Tune-Up Cafe for another great meal and of course an Arnold Palmer in our hecka large cup reused from some other drink. Actually it started as an Arnold Palmer and then morphed into many iced teas since there were free refills. Some shopping and stuff later we headed back to Madrid.

Yes, you read that correctly. It turns out we’d forgotten a small bag and the easy drive to a comfortable place with a stove, shower, and washing machine made sense.

Looking east from Diablo Canyon towards where we camped. Hello everyone!!!