On a sunny Saturday in mid-January, we drove to the Albuquerque Open Space Visitor Center to view the current exhibition in the gallery, “Cosmic.”
There are also trails in the open space, and walking the trails with our dogs is one of our favorite outdoor activities.
Open Space Visitor Center
The Visitor Center is located at 6500 Coors Blvd NW. Adjacent to the parking lot is a large sculpture named ‘Flyway.’
Sculpted from recycled jetty jacks, the piece portrays the migratory flight of the Sandhill Cranes to and from the nearby bosque and the Rio Grande.
We also saw this unusual structure near the parking lot. It was constructed to encourage bees to locate in the area.
Since it was January, no bees were living there. However, it did make sense that this homemade beehive was at the Open Space Visitor Center. Albuquerque is a Bee City!
After looking at the art near the parking lot, we went inside the visitor center to view the ‘Cosmic’ art exhibit.
While inside, we looked through all the displays and picked up a few trail maps.
Before returning to the parking lot, we stopped to look at more land art in the courtyard.
Canopy Loop & River Loop Open Space Trails
Our dogs, patiently waiting for us in the back of the Subaru, became excited when we put their leashes on and headed for the trail.
The Visitor Center Bosque Trail crosses the Corrales Riverside Drain and ends at the trailheads of the Canopy Loop and River Loop Trails. We hiked the 2.2-mile Canopy Loop, which ended at the start of the 1.2-mile River Loop Trail.
Several jetty jacks still remain in this part of the bosque. They were installed in the early 1960s to protect the levees as a part of flood control on the Rio Grande. However, after the Cochiti Dam was built, many of the jetty jacks were removed.
The trail map we picked up in the Visitor Center had markers indicating places various birds and animals could be seen. Though it wasn’t on the map, this Red-tail Hawk made its appearance.
After wandering off-trail a few times, we reach the marker for the River Loop trail. It was extremely muddy in places, however, we found some dry areas to walk, reaching the Rio Grande and a great view.
We picked up a map for the Foothills Trails while at the Open Space Visitor Center, and a couple of weeks later, we hiked the Embudito and Michael Emery Trails. We had another enjoyable hike and share many pictures in our post.