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Beautiful trail. Pretty serious uphill for the first 1/4 to 1/2 mile. Uphill basically the entire way to the peak, 1.5 miles in. Well shaded. Lots of foot and bike traffic.
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I never done Atalaya to Picacho Trails leading a group, it’s challenging and people do get lost In Picacho trails labyrinth!
But this hike was awesome: sunny, but windy, you’ll need a lot of water and good boots to get through all scrambles on the way down.
About 2000F elevation gain and 9 miles roundtrip.
360 degrees views on both mountains!
Awesome Santa Fe Hike, which I’d call strenuous!
Small group, no more, than 7 people on hike, like this is always better, than large group!!
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Worth seeing once, but the last ~30 miles are very slow due to rough roads and steep cliffs.
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We met at the ski hill parking lot at 5:30am to begin our in-out exploratory hike to find the trailhead to Caballa Mountain. We started along Canada Bonita trail in the dark, escorted by shadows of asters , passed the meadow as the sky transitioned from black to grey to pink to orange to red to blue, and we reached the scenic Rosie’s Point in 2 hours. The trail down into Guaje Canyon was steep and rocky ending at Natalia’ Rock- a large reddish rock in the middle of the canyon floor (named in honor of Natalia Moore and her love for geology). From there we went east along the creek, spotting cairns along the way but missed the subtle detour that led to the new trailhead. We hiked along the creek to reach the dam but a black bull was not happy with our efforts so we turned around, found a spot for lunch and sang happy birthday to Murray. Along our trek, Tony pulled out his foldable saw a few times to clear the pathway of fallen tree limbs. On our journey back up the creek, Sandy spotted the extra cairns on a path leading up toward Caballa Mountain through downed trees. The guys added extra rocks to the area to make the trailhead more obvious to spot for the next explorers. The hardest part of the hike was climbing the steep 1 mile switchbacks back up to Rosie’s Point. Mercifully, it was cloudy and not too hot with views of distant glittering neopolitan-colored fairy tale cliffs that reminded us that God seems to save His most whimsical creation for Himself and a few adventuresome hikers. From there, we pushed along back up to the relatively level Villas de los Posos Overlook through enchanting forests with glimpses into the magnificent Valles Caldera, through sad tree graveyards dotted with adolescent aspens and through rooms decorated with gardens of sneeze weed, fire weed, scarlet Gilia trumpeters, and bluebells. We made it back to our cars about 4pm stopping for a photo in front of the distant Pajarito Ski Hill to commemorate the day.
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Great hike from cabin to logging road via echo point trail. Great find!
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Very pretty hike in the suburbs of Santa Fe. Depart early in the summer because it gets very hot.
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Gorgeous, cool hike through a pine/aspen forest. The loop takes you to a stream & meadow at the end. Some fairly steep ascents with switchbacks but quite doable if you’re acclimated to the altitude.
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Fun trail where we saw an elk and received some snow. Mostly easy with the trail after lunch providing a few challenges. Erica drove the section after lunch and did a great job. She learned how to switch the 4runner in and out of 4lo. Feels more comfortable driving off road after this experience.
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This was my first time in this trail, when we’ve made it to Pacheco Canyon road. It was almost 2 miles from Big TESUQUE campground, going through the forest with moderate descent ups and down narrow trail.
To keep this hike moderate we turned back and made almost 4 miles all together.
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Nice hike. Almost got hit by MB. Go right (east?) at the map and Schleppe up to the ridge a couple hundred feet higher for a view.
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An easy winding trail through shady Ponderosa pines punctuated with purple pasque flower surprises hiding under gray ground cover along the path. Walking buddy duo Ruth and Patty share life stories while pondering the beauty of the forest: how 2 deer can stay so still as they watch us walk by, the sun rays hitting the light green pine needles of 3 young trees in an arroyo below the path, the sounds of birds announcing spring, the shades of purple on the pasque flowers popping up from the ground, and the mystery of where paths seen in the distance go to.
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Great walk from the CG or picnic area. Starts in a pretty, open meadow then through an unlocked gate onto a gas pipeline road. Walk involves some moderate uphill hiking but nothing strenuous. Very pretty views from the top of the rise.
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Wonderful hike! Beautiful area. Damian trail was tough! A bit hard to see in a couple places, thankfully marked every few yards with wooden markers
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Great hike! I found a new route! I hiked the maintained trail down to the box, then followed the creek almost to the highway, then found a trail leading back up to East Fork of the Jemez (the trail I came in on)! Love when I discover new routes!
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Very scenic hike to the San Antonio hot springs. Hike starts at the top of a ridge and descents down into a grass valley with a creek that Lara’s all the way to the hot springs.
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No one was on the trail at 9am on Monday. Lots of cut timber parallel to trail but no active logging. Trail gets overgrown after a couple of miles so not great visually.
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Pajarito is an excellent climb. Glad to see retirees doing- inspiring for me
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A couple of places where you need 4L. Don’t follow to Ashley Rd to far end as there’s a private gate that’s locked.
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Beautiful scenery, a small river by the trail and lots of aspens. We walked the entire trail total it said we went 4.62 miles. A suggestion would be to reach the fork in the trailhead and go right to begin with. That is hiking the trail counter clockwise. Would recommend this trail for
Viva New Mexico...
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Only accessible via private property ( I traveled with the owners)
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This is a good family hike. It’s in a canyon, so it’s a few degrees cooler than the surrounding area. There’s a small stream, but I suspect it may not be flowing much at all by late June.
The parking is right along the interstate, so watch those kids and pets.
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This is a good family hike. It’s in a canyon, so it’s a few degrees cooler than the surrounding area. There’s a small stream, but I suspect it may not be flowing much at all by late June.
The parking is right along the interstate, so watch those kids and pets.
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The trail starts along FS road, and is a bit exposed to the sun. About 1.5 miles in, it starts to feel like a real hiking trail. Steep, but relatively easy hiking terrain. You’ll climb up to a ridge through pine forests.
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A midday hike looking for birds. Disappointingly few birds, but it was midday and still early in the year. Very good trail
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Great hike with decent views of Los Alamos. Mostly rock trail decently marked. In a couple areas though there’s multiple offshoots that aren’t clearly marked. Bring a GPS or a map.
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Going to the summit of Picacho Peak is a moderate hike. 600’ per mile. Some might find it steep depending on your conditioning but it is only 2 miles each way. Views are quite nice in the upper third.
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Very nice hike, beautiful fall colors! Very good workout, lots of good climbs. Few creek crossings, got my feet a bit wet, no big deal. I was excited to enjoy a few segments of this hike that I’ve never been. It did get a bit confusing in a couple of places but that was mostly due to me not studying the route well enough! My bad! I was happy to get back to my car well before dark and safe!
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The first 1/3 of a mile is steep but after that you can cruise. This is normally a great fall hike with lots of aspen and a good chance of hearing (and possibly seeing) elk. But today the leaves are mostly green and no signs of elk.
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Very heavily travelled. You will smell dog shit every 20 yards. Disgusting.
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Beautiful trail (once you get past the fallen trees that have been decimated by drought, disease, or beetles). Don't count on any water to be available for filtering. I was up there on Labor Day and September 15th. On Labor Day, the stream was barely a trickle. Mid-September, the stream was mostly dry with occasional puddles. I was glad that we all brought sufficient water.
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