There’s a lot of information available on the web about hiking Tesuque Canyon—but most of it seems to be the upper part of Tesuque. The lower part of the canyon is just as close to Santa Fe and makes for a nice morning walk. The trailhead is a little hard to find, but worth the effort if you’re staying in Santa Fe and want a fairly easy stroll. From the Santa Fe National Forest site, these are the directions to get to the trailhead for Trail 254 Winsor Trail Part 1 Tesuque to Aspen Basin:

Turn off of Bishop’s Lodge Road (County Road 73A) onto County Road 72A, at a sign here that reads Big Tesuque Canyon. Watch for the two small areas on the right identified as trail parking areas. Park here and follow up the road, go across the stream and behind the residences to a dirt road. Turn left on the road, and then follow the trail east as it passes through more private land to the forest boundary which is about a half mile from the parking area.

The sign for Country Road 72a is small—like a neighborhood street sign. It also has a “dead end” sign because the end of the road basically turns into the trail.

I didn’t follow the trail for more than an hour. It may be possible to turn it into a loop, but I didn’t have a map. I believe the USGS Map: McClure Reservoir shows this trail.

	At the beginning of the trail, you’re surrounded by tightly bound juniper fences on either side. Between the fences and the trees, you’re almost in a tunnel. The stream is behind the fences here. It’s a fairly easy walk with sounds and smells of horses and other livestock until you reach the forest.
	Once in the forest, the stream is still fenced off for riparian protection. This fence doesn’t last very long. The trail meanders upwards at a gentle rate and follows the stream. The colors in the fall were very nice indeed, especially along the stream where there were deciduous type trees. The hillside was mostly piñon, ponderosa and various juniper trees, including the one-seed juniper. There were some bluish-hued junipers that I didn’t recognize.
	After about a mile there’s a log down for a stream crossing. At this point, the trail on the other side of the water went in two directions. Going right took me back along the stream—but I don’t know if you would end up back at the starting point. Going left led further up into the mountains.

You can turn this hike into an all-day hike or just a nice morning walk.

I had been to Taos before, years ago when I still skied. It’s a beautiful place, although the town itself is quite old and lacks some of the Santa Fe art. Santa Fe is also larger, which means there are not as many restaurants in Taos. As always, when traveling, I report any eatery gems. We only ate out once in Taos and it was average–good food, but nothing to go back for. The price was fairly average as well. Strangely, Orlandos was recommended both on the web and by people in Taos when we asked about a good place to eat. I think it had more to do with pricing since Taos can be quite expensive. Orlandos was out from the center on the north side of town so prices were not unreasonable.

One place worth stopping for a bit of sightseeing was the Hacienda de los Martinez, on Ranchitos Road a few miles southwest of the plaza. It’s a nice little museum, but rather than sterile new rooms in a big building, it’s an actual old hacienda with many relics from ages gone by. Not crowded and not expensive, it was an enjoyable stroll through the life of a settler long gone. There were old wagon wheels, butter churns, old beds and dishes, but it was the building itself that captured me. I enjoyed walking through rooms with dirt floors and low doorways–or the one room with a wooden floor. It was interesting to see the family chapel, the fire places and the way the building was constructed with the center left open (A typical Spanish plaza type construction. The center was often a garden area or used for dances or other large gatherings.) One section of the hacienda appeared to be for parking the wagon/horses in cold weather. There was a blacksmith shop, a very large kitchen complete with hammock-type beds for sleeping above the warm ovens, a tanning room, weaving room with woven samples and many store rooms.

I don’t think pictures were allowed, because I didn’t take any!

We also visited the The Church of San Francisco de Asis, in Ranchos de Taos, and the Taos Pueblo (real, working Indian Pueblo.)

The church was not really worth the stop; we saw far prettier churches on a few random stops in smaller towns.

Our last stop was the Taos Pueblo. Parking and a guided tour were “donations” but it cost ten dollars to enter and six dollars to take photos. Hmm. The pricing as such put me off. The tour, however, was very nicely done by a young man working his way through college. He did a great job. The church on the pueblo grounds was very pretty and had a mix of Indian lore as well as Catholic lore. The cemetery near a destroyed church also had mixed lore.

Strangely the shops in the Pueblo contained Indian items from other tribes (Navajo more than any other). This fact and the fact that there was no museum detracted greatly from my enjoyment of the pueblo. There were a few local items, but very little history laid out. Indians in general do not spend time on written history; perhaps this is why they also don’t tell their story through museum pieces. The tour guide did a nice job of answering questions, but it would have been nice to see some old items well-cared for and preserved or even replicas of important history. The grounds themselves and the stories the guide told of various ceremonies was worth a listen. It brought a bit of the magic of the place alive.

Because it was off-season, we were able to stay at a very nice ski resort thirty minutes outside Taos up on the mountainside. There wasn’t much time for hiking, but I did take a short jaunt up the hillside the morning we left. As always, when there is water, I will walk beside it. It soothes and refreshes, even as it laughs at me.

Taos Stream near Ski Resort

I wouldn’t mind returning to Taos for more hiking. The skiing there is quite nice when they get enough snow. It used to be a favorite place of mine to ski with slopes ranging from easy to very difficult.

Tent Rock, New Mexico

Tent Rock is less than an hour’s drive south of Santa Fe and approximately an hour north of Albuquerque. From I-25, take exit 264 to NM16 west. From there, follow the signs–it’s about 20 minutes and you’ll be passing through reservation, private property and onto a dirt road that leads to the parking area. It’s well worth the side trip. Take water and lunch because there is little out there other than a small Indian reservation and dam. Although we passed a school, we did not see a gas station or store. There is one about 7 miles out of your way in the Village of Cochiti Lake near the dam/lake area.

	The first part of Tent Rock trail is interesting, although nothing particularly earth-shattering. The sandstone “tents” look more like teepees, most ending at a point. Some have rocks or boulders teetering at the top, looking quite ready to roll down the cone sides. The most interesting part of this hike is not included in the one mile loop.
	Follow the trail from either side of the loop back into the canyon. That is where the fun starts. For the most part, you’ll be walking on sand, but there are several narrow openings through the canyon where the hard sandstone hasn’t yielded to wind and water. The trail is well-kept and quite gradual until the last quarter of a mile. At that point, you’re climbing level with the “tents” and there are dreaded switchbacks, but it doesn’t go for long, nor is it insurmountable.
	The view from the top is excellent! You can see off into forever–the mountains, the dam, the river, over to Santa Fe and Albuquerque. From this level you also see the “tents” from above, a neat perspective.

The whole hike is between 3 and 4 miles round trip. One side of the loop is longer than the other—it provides more interesting scenes than the shorter side, but if you’re in a hurry, take the short side of the loop back into the canyon.

It’s a great half-day hike–narrow canyon, water-washed walls, scooped formations and the wind whistling through it all.

This national monumuent is open year round, although winter hours list as closing at five o’clock. If you go in the summer, go early as some parts of the trail will be under full sun and quite hot. Winter could be quite cold especially with the wind coming through the canyon. This trip was towards the end of Sept and the temperature was perfect!

Red Dot Trail

White Rock, New Mexico is small town, small. It’s near Los Alamos and so far as I could tell, has no industry of its own. The mansions and houses that sit along White Rock Canyon are very impressive, but not so much as the canyon itself. The Rio Grande winds along the bottom and the wind whistles through the canyon that only it owns.

Jagged boulders greet hikers at the top of Red Dot Trail and are more than enough to make a person check the map. But yes, Red Dot Trail goes down there, through the impossible pointed rocks that tried to trip my wary feet. The view is spectacular from the top and continues to be so all the way down.

The trail drops about 900 ft in a mile. Steep. Very steep. My knees were practically knocking together from the strain of staying in a half sitting position as I picked my way down the canyon on a not-so-well-marked trail. Luckily when going down, you can kind of see the trail ahead. That is to say, you can see the spots that contain the least dangerous boulders.

The trip down is worth it. At the first level, perhaps four hundred feet down, there’s a bit of a flat. On a juniper tree, I spied a Western Tanager. Beautiful. It held still long enough for me to check it out with binoculars.

Very near the Rio Grande is Pajarito Springs. What a haven! What a spot for lunch or to cool off on a hot summer day. More birds, including a hummer that sat on a branch for several seconds before flitting higher into the wind.

In May, the Rio Grande was gorged with fresh runoff, muddy, but impressive. I picked out a large rock and sat back to enjoy it—only I leaned against the spines of a cactus growing along the crevice of the rock. Ouch! At least it wasn’t a snake!

The way back up was just as beautiful—and since the haze had burned off, in the distance the snow-capped mountains above Santa Fe hovered. The sky was bluer and the heat collected in the canyon, following me upward. I would have been out sooner except I lost the trail…had to go back down a ways…back up…nope, still no trail…no red dots…

In the end, I scrambled up to where I could see a flattened line, which I knew had to be the trail. I don’t know how I was really supposed to get to that spot because the long grass blades poking around the rocks indicated that I was not, in fact, on any trail. Then the steep parts took over and it was pull myself up and suck in oxygen.

The swallows called my attention as I came to the part of the trail bordered by a high, straight cliff. Far above my head, petroglyphs in rustic red decorated the black rock. Now how did anyone ever get along that sheer cliff? Perhaps long ago, the broken rubble of rocks on the down side had been part of the cliff rather than the landslide that remained.

One mile, maybe one and quarter mile down—a short hike, a tough hike, but a worthy one. A very worthy one.

Directions
For directions to White Rock and the local hikes in the area, click the link then then click on the White Rock link. You may need to contact the visitor center for more information, but basically, we drove to White Rock and used the map on the above mentioned site to find the Red Dot trailhead.

The Blue Dot Trailhead is also easy to find, although we did not take that hike. You can go in the Blue and out the Red (or the other way around) and do a loop. With a two-car shuttle plan, I think the hike would be about five miles.

Other Hikes in NM
There are a lot of other hikes in this part of New Mexico. Craig Martin has a few books on hiking in the area and I contacted him before going on this one. He had some helpful tips; among them—always, always, when hiking in New Mexico, take plenty of water. The other usual suspect: adjust to the altitude before hiking.

The canyon hike could be brutally hot on the way out if taken during the summer (or the wrong part of the day). We were there in mid-May. The temperature was a pleasant 75, maybe 80 on the way out. During hot times of the year, go very early in the morning! There is some tree coverage, especially around Pajarito Springs, but canyons trap heat so be warned.

Bandelier Monument, about 8 miles from White Rock, is worth looking at also. We took the one-mile hike around the ruins, but didn’t have time for more. These were some of the best cliff dwelling ruins I’ve visited. There were a couple of other hikes in the Bandelier area, including one to a ceremonial kiva off in the mountains that looked fun. I would have loved to hike a bit longer down in White Rock Canyon—the Red Dot turns into a river trail that goes to Water Canyon (going away from Blue Dot Trail.) I’m saving that one for the next time.

Where to Stay

We stayed in Santa Fe at Luxury Inn. Reasonably priced hotels are hard to find in Santa Fe; this no-name hotel turned out just fine. May 2005 we paid about 80 dollars including tax for three of us to stay in a “suite” that had a small fridge and microwave. Free wireless was common all over Santa Fe. The room was clean, the pool and hot tub were clean and heated. Cancellation policy—as just about anywhere in Santa Fe is strict—48 or 72 hours as opposed to the usual 24. Most B&B in the area are: pay two weeks in advance and no refunds or only a partial refund on cancellation.

There are places to stay in Los Alamos, although you’ll have to research because mostly there are bed and breakfasts. B&B in that area, as in Santa Fe, were not cheap.

Albuquerque has the most reasonable pricing on hotels, but it is an hour from Santa Fe. A lot depends on how much you’re able to spend and where you want to hike. Albuquerque has some great hikes, including up the backside of Sandia and in the Manzano Mountains. Check out Tajique Canyon in October for awesome fall colors about an hour southeast of Albuquerque.