More hikes, critters and hot springs!

We are lucky enough to have our dear friends the Martins just up in Santa Fe.

And that they like doing fun things like hiking! 

We finally saw a snake on a mission to find some free natural hot springs.  We ended up taking a 6 mile hike each way.

Ben and my fellow interns wisely decided to wait until the snake crossed the road before passing by.

Here are some of my fellow interns soaking in the 3rd of 4 hot spring pools.

The trees surrounding us were covered in this crazy hanging moss that looked icicles.

This is the view as you sit soaking.  WHOA!  Way to go NM!

It also started pouring while we were in the hot springs which made things pretty magical.

Ben and I went on a hike the weekend before in the Sandias which is the range that overlooks ABQ.  Here Ben checks out the view.

There are some crazy trees in New Mexico.  Look at the weird bark!

We found a (tiny) waterfall,

 a nice shady path,

and some tiny lizards (correction, a diligent reader identified this as a horned toad AKA horned frog).

Holy smokes living near mountains is amazing!