Advertisement
Published: August 25th 2019
Pagosa Springs
From the River Walk trail, looking across the San Juan River at the resort area.In mid July, Anne and I traveled to northern New Mexico and southern Colorado to do a bit of hiking. We started in Colorado and finished in New Mexico. All of these areas were at higher elevations than we are used to hiking in, but we decided we’d just take it easy and do what we could. That worked out pretty well but in hindsight we probably should have started in New Mexico at the lower elevations, around 7,000 feet, before tackling the 10,000 feet and up that we found in Colorado. But we were able to complete most of the hikes we had planned on doing.
I’ll post some pictures from the three main areas we visited on this page as well as a brief description of the trails we managed to hike.
We flew into Albuquerque on a Tuesday, arriving before noon and then drove about 4 hours to Pagosa Springs, CO, for our first two nights. Upon arrival, we checked into our motel, then drove down to the center of town to walk around the neat river walk that circles around the hot springs resort area and along the San Juan River.
Piedra River Trail
Our first hike near Pagosa Springs. Pagosa Springs altitude is just over 7,000 feet, but it is surrounded by much higher mountains. Even so, we struggled a bit before we acclimated to the higher elevation.
On Wednesday, we drove to the Piedra River trailhead to do a bit of hiking at a lower elevation trail, at around 7,700 feet, to aid in acclimation. The trail generally followed the course of the river through a fairly steep gorge. We hiked for about 4 miles down the river before turning around and retracing our steps to the car. All in all, about an 8 mile hike with a minimal 700 feet or so of elevation lost then regained.
On Thursday, we drove to the trailhead for the main hike that we had planned for the area. Wolf Creek Pass and the surrounding mountains receive the most snow, about 450 inches each year, of any area in Colorado. The Continental Divide Trail crosses highway 160 at the pass, and that’s where we started our hike to Alberta Peak. Only about 3 miles one way but starting at 10,800 feet and climbing over 1,000 feet to the top of the ridge, breathing was tough.
Piedra River Trail
Our first hike, near Pagosa Springs. The north side of the ridge is where the Wolf Creek Ski area is, and we passed by several of the ski lifts at the summit. The trail had several spots that were snow covered which were a little tricky to cross but none that were too difficult. Views of the surrounding mountains made the hike well worth the effort. After returning to our car, we drove to Silverton, CO, about 100 miles and a little over 2 hours from Pagosa Springs. Silverton’s elevation is just over 9,300 feet, making it one of the highest towns in the United States.
On Friday, we had planned to hike to the summit of Engineer Mountain. The hike would have been around 3.5 miles one way starting at an elevation of 10,600 feet and climbing to 12,955 at the summit. However, speaking with the owner of our hotel as well as a volunteer at the visitor center, we were told that most of the upper portion of the trail to Engineer Mt. would be snow covered, plus a portion had been damaged by avalanches the previous winter. Given these disappointing reports as well as rethinking our stamina levels at these
Piedra River Trail
Near the midpoint of the hike. altitudes, we opted for a lower level hike at the Molas Lake area. The Molas Lake area trails start at Molas Pass, elevation 10,900 feet. We accessed the Colorado Trail from the pass and then hiked several trails that branched off that main trail. From the high point at the pass, we descended somewhere around 500 feet to the lake area, passing a neat waterfall along the way. Views of the surrounding high, snow covered peaks were impressive. All in all, we hiked around 10 miles on some fairly easy trails even though they were still at a pretty high elevation.
After finishing our hike in the Molas Lake area we drove back to Silverton and found a gravel road that passed by the Christ of the Mines shrine. This is a statue of Christ that stands on the slope of Anvil Mountain and overlooks the town in the valley below. It was built in 1959, made of Carrara Marble from Italy, is 16 feet tall, and weighs 12 tons. Several miracles are attributed to the statue, one involving the flooding of the gold and silver mine (located on the mountain above the statue) on a Sunday
Continental Divide Trail
Along the trail from Wolf Creek Pass to the ski area at the top of the ridge, on the way to Alberta Peak. when no one was in the mine, thus no loss of life.
Saturday morning we drove to Los Alamos and, after checking in to our motel, drove to the Bradbury Science Museum in downtown Los Alamos, Named after Norris E. Bradbury, the first director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, the museum is free and contains lots of exhibits describing the laboratory’s historical contributions to the development of the atom bomb as well as its ongoing mission of weapons development and other nuclear research. After the museum, we drove to a small unit of the Bandolier National Monument called Tsankawi Prehistoric Site. We needed to stretch our legs and this was a good place to do it with a fairly easy 1.5 mile walk along a mesa, viewing lots of petroglyphs carved into the sandstone along the trail, and visiting the ruins of the Ancestral Pueblo village of Tsankawi.
Sunday we drove to the trailhead for the Cerro Grande Peak hike. The Cerro Grande Trail winds its way up to the highest point in the Bandolier National Monument, Cerro Grande Peak at 10,199 ft. The route is 2.3 miles each way (4.6 round trip)
Wolf Creek Ski Area
From the Continental Divide Trail. with an elevation gain of approximately 1,200 feet from trailhead to summit. From the summit you can overlook the lower parts of the monument to the south and, to the north, the actual caldera in the Valles Caldera National Preserve which is adjacent to Bandolier NM. While the word bandolier refers to a broad belt worn over the shoulder for carrying ammunition or other items, the park's name has nothing to do with the belt. It is named for Adolph Bandelier, a Swiss-American anthropologist who researched the cultures of the area and supported preservation of the sites as a national park unit. The National Park Service cooperates with surrounding Pueblos, other federal agencies, and state agencies to manage the park.
Monday we drove back to Albuquerque to rest up for our flight home the next morning. Along the way, we chanced upon the New Mexico Coronado Historical Site that preserved the ruins of Kuaua Pueblo which was visited by Coronado on his exploration of the southwest in 1540. We were looking for a good spot with a picnic area in order to eat our lunch and this fit the bill and then some. We enjoyed a tour
Continental Divide Trail
From the ridge near Wolf Creek Ski Area. of the site, learning a bit about the early inhabitants as well as information about the various desert flora of the area. After our tour, we had our lunch at a table under a nice shaded ramada overlooking the Rio Grande River.
After our lunch we drove on to our motel in Albuquerque where we packed up the final time for our very early flight home the next morning. We arrived at GSP around 2:00 PM and got home about 3:30 where we were greeted by three cats happy to see Anne and the food bowls.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.14s; Tpl: 0.023s; cc: 14; qc: 31; dbt: 0.0912s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
