Placitas -- Frozen Waterfall

I took a short walk with a new group this past week. They are very active but my schedule and location gets in the way of my participation. They are also more likely to do all day hikes while I'm still sort of a short hike person.


Anyway, the trip was a short one in the late afternoon up near Placitas, which is not too far from my house....so I decided to go along. The goal of the walk was to visit a frozen waterfall up on the slope of the Sandia foothills.  We had a dozen walkers and met at a local strip mall to work out the transportation carpools. When we finally got started one driver sped ahead and totally missed the turnoff and was lost for a half hour. I drove my pick-up and was in the rear so I managed to get to the starting spot OK. The road was rutted and very rough...a small car could not have made the trip.


We parked in a small lot at the trail head of a major trail up into the Sandias. Our route followed a dry arroyo  for only about a quarter mile. The waterfall was right there...more of a tumbling cascade than a true waterfall but it was impressive.


The waterfall is spring fed and in warm weather it isn't much more than a trickle but in sub freezing weather the trickle freezes and the spring keeps flowing so the amount of frozen water keeps adding to the accumulated ice.