Monday, May 18, 2009

Darren's Eagle Scout Project

The three satellite images above show three "zoom" levels of the Carlito Spring area at the southern end of the Sandia Mountains, where Darren did his Eagle Scout service project back in 2005. Carlito Spring was originally a homestead, and back around the turn of the 20th Century it was turned into a dude ranch/resort; in recent years Bernalillo County acquired the property and at last report was trying to make it into a conference center of sorts. Darren's project was to build a footbridge over the creek at a location downstream from the spring.

The broadest view shows I-40 in the Tijeras area--Carlito Spring is the area left of center, to which the dirt road (actually two dirt roads that converge) leads. The intermediate view shows the general area where the bridge is located, slightly northwest of the dogleg in the road. And in the close-up, you can actually see the bridge, which is the lighter-colored structure in the clearing at the center of the image. And, of course, the top photo shows Darren after the bridge was completed. We haven't been back up there since the project, but hopefully the county will open the area up to the public one day soon.

[Update 5/23/12: Only now do I notice that the Google Earth images above date to 2004, or before Darren did his project; thus the bridge does not show up in them.  However, they do show where it was later constructed.  We still haven't been back to the site; I don't believe the county has ever opened it to public access.]