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Published: June 24th 2017
Geo: 35.6915, -105.937
Santa Fe Hiking Meetup up Atalaya Trail
OK, we really enjoy being back in Santa Fe. We have our exercise class on Tuesday and Thursday and we belong to several meetup groups that allow us to hike, kayak and camp as we choose.
Some of the hikes we have been on turned out to be more difficult than we had thought they would be but we struggled on and finished them.
We read about the Atalaya Trail hike and it was described as "over easy" and so we decided to go for it because we had been interested in checking this trail out. Looked the directions up on GPS and off we went. The trail begins in the St. Johns College parking lot. This can be confusing but there are signs that clearly state this.
Joined the group and off we went. The trail climbs up and through the trees with vistas out across Santa Fe. The trail heads up gradually and there are several nice places to stop and catch your breathe and enjoy the view.
Our leader Dalia, who is also a Russian immigrant, artist and gallerist, set a nice pace and you could pretty much travel at your own
speed and not hold the rest of the group back. To get almost to the top was about 2 and 1/2 miles and going down was of course much easier. There was one place where the trail forked on the way down and to get back to the St. John's parking lot you take the fork that says St. John's and not Atalaya.
At one point Robert had forged ahead with the leader and Laura had taken time to let her breath catch up with her. Dalia took a right fork and Laura took a left. She met up with the part of the group who had been walking much faster as they were coming down.
Robert went back down the trail but did not encounter Laura and began to worry she had fallen of the steep slide from the trail.
He was relieved to talk to the part of the group that had seen Laura and sure enough she came along 5 minutes later. Whew!
All in all it was a great hike, plenty of nice views, clear skies and an easy pace. Easy to see how you could make this a day long adventure.
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