2024
A Reflection on the Life and Changes in the Bear Canyon and Pino Arroyos
I’m fortunate to live on the east side of Albuquerque and frequently walk and mountain bike through two arroyos, Bear Canyon and Pino. Two or three times a week, I ride my mountain bike down from the trails in the Sandia foothills through Bear Canyon Arroyo to Tramway Blvd. The trails in that part of the arroyo are fun and fast, although quite sandy most of the year. While riding through the arroyo yesterday, I noticed a few blooms of basket evening primrose, which flourish in the arroyo in early spring. The lower part of the arroyo will soon be blanketed with a carpet of green, lasting just a few weeks, but followed soon after by blooming cholla. The arroyo is always changing, which is why I never tire of riding through there, and it provides a much better bike route than riding on paved streets.
Just to the north of our house, the two forks of the Pino Arroyo pass underneath Tramway and into the North Pino Dam, constructed many years ago for flood prevention. Just to the west of the dam is the Tanoan golf course, built in the floodplain of the arroyo. While we would prefer a wild and free arroyo to a dam and a golf course, both of those are preferable to concrete diversion channels, houses, and strip malls.
The North Pino Dam is quite large and provides an open space area that we walk through many times per week, as do many others. The dam provides a fantastic view of the Rio Grand Valley to the west and the Sandia Mountains to the east. It is a great place to watch the balloons during the Ballon Fiesta, the fireworks throughout the city on the 4th of July, and the fantastic New Mexico sunsets. The dam is covered with native vegetation, so we are treated to wild flowers in the spring and again in the monsoon season. Fall brings bright yellow chamisa and the feathery Apache Plume. Birds and wildlife are commonly sighted, including coyotes. The wildlife sightings have diminished recently with the construction of a large new apartment complex, which was built on top of the arroyo just to the west of Tramway. Many millions of dollars were spent leveling the arroyo and building a concrete channel that runs under the apartments. The apartments are fenced, of course, so sadly there is no longer a path for wildlife to wander down the arroyo from the mountains.
We often wonder how the city could allow the construction of two apartment complexes on top of the Pino Arroyo so close to such a large dam. What kind of flood did they design the dam to contain? And if such a flood is a possibility, even a remote one, why allow the apartment complexes?
Last spring, my wife was walking in the dam and spotted a herd of about 10 deer that had made their way under Tramway but were now stuck at the fence on the west side of the apartments and were desperately trying to find a way out. When my wife called the city seeking assistance, they basically thought she was crazy, asking if she needed someone to come out and check on her. We are not sure what became of the deer, but hope they somehow made their way out.
Water only flows in the arroyos when it rains, mostly during the monsoon season. During a downpour, the runoff can be quite significant. We really enjoy walking around the dam just after a thunderstorm. If we’re lucky, water will still be flowing in the arroyos. During the rainy season, a pond forms at the bottom of the arroyo, and we are treated to a truly unique experience - the croaking of bull frogs, followed a few days later by the emergence of thousands of spadefoot toad tadpoles, emerging from somewhere down in the dirt. Over the next few weeks, the tadpoles grow and turn into toads. Magical!