With Tetilla Peak boat ramp closed for the season, we embarked from the main Cochiti Lake ramp on a beautiful late Indian Summer day. Although it added two additional miles to our trip, we still made it upstream to Capulin Canyon for the third week in a row.

Navigation was quite difficult in many areas due to lower water levels and therefore more exposed sandbars and underwater mudflats, and the current was strong, but witnessing the autumn changes and bright colors of the trees and shrubs offered great pleasure.

Sightings included two ospreys, beavers, Western grebes, and a flock of Canada geese in addition to the usual herons, ducks, ravens, hawks, and falcons.

We exulted in the power of nature and that which is meaningful and enduring. And as always, the stillness, river, incredible rock formations, and solitude were deeply nurturing and expansive.