Day 35

The Great Jemez Mountains Botanical Expedition of 2014

Woke up early to a rare foggy morning in Albuquerque.  Kent came by and we loaded up the Prius.  Destination:  St. Peter's Dome Road and the headwaters of Capulin Canyon, high in the Jemez Mountains of northern New Mexico.  It had rained the night before and we thought snowline might be near the research location where my nephew was going to be collecting field data for his senior botany project.  But it was just a trace of precipitation--surely the sun would melt off a little spindrift snow. 

As it turned out, there was more precipitation that the NOAA storm total map estimated by radar.  At the turnoff from the pavement, we found 3" of new snow.  No chance of harvesting 48 samples of herbaceous plant material unless we wanted to pretend we were starving elk, scraping at the ice and snow for a few meager bits of lichen and moss. 

We really didn't need to have Google add more snow to the situation via their Awesome-izing process.

 
After some light-hearted fun in the snow,

... we wisely retreated to the Pajarito Brew Pub in Los Alamos and regrouped.  Plan B:  Let the sun do the work for us and come back in two weeks. 

 

As it were, the winds came up stronger than ever, the snow fell heavily, and we drove back to Albuquerque in this sort of weather:  

 

Tonight I will sleep warmly in my own bed instead of freezing in a wind-blown tent.  With age comes wisdom.  

All that aside, I'm sure that Glass will be a great asset when we're back in the field surveying. clipping, bagging, weighing, and hauling for this research project.