Having attended the Open House and Fly-In at the Los Alamos airport (KLAM), I took advantage of continuing west on NM 4 for a bit of a walkabout near Valles Caldera. We’ve hiked to the top of Cerro Grande, so I was familiar with the first half mile – an easy trail as I work towards getting back in hiking shape after nearly a year of “limited duty”.
The Drive In
To get there, from either direction on NM 4:
East 5 miles from the entrance to Valles Caldera
West 5 miles from the intersection of NM 4 and NM 501 (the road through Los Alamos)
Parking is on the north side of NM 4.
The walkabout
Cerro Grande Trails Walk.Solo.2025-06-28
Notes about the Google Earth screenshot: the graph at the bottom shows elevation of the track (pink area) and speed (the blue line).
The plan was to hike as far as the slope of the trail remained gradual, knowing from experience (and checking past hikes), that at a point it would take a significant turn -up-. And I was not ready for any significant climbing. So … at half a mile, encountering an abrupt change in slow, and then a rocky surface, I turned around.
One of the great enjoyments of hiking in these mountains during the summer – flowers. I counted 14 different flowering plants during this ~mile walk; pictures of a few are above.
Wanting more, and being curious, I chose to explore a “trail” that is marked on GAIA (and on other maps). A few hundred yards from the trailhead approcimately where the map indicated, I found no sign of any trail. Curious enough, I proceeded to follow the track as it went northeast towards a canyon that goes up to a crest just north of Cerro Grande. The terrain is easy – generally flat, a few areas of small rocks, covered in tufts of calf-high grass. I continued on to the entrance to the small canyon where I found the first sign of a “trail” – evidence typical of an access road put in place decades ago. It might be worth exploring further some day.
Statistics
Total Distance: 2.18 miles
Elevation: start 8,959 ft, maximum 9,157 ft, 8,958 minimum ft
Gross gain: 199 ft. Aggregate ascending 336 ft, descending 335 ft
Maximum slope: 25% ascending, 25% descending, 05.2% average
Duration: 2:11, Average Speed: 1.0 mph
If you haven’t explored these hiking tracks with Google Earth, I urge you to try it. With the virtual 3-dimensional presentation, achieved by panning and tilting the view, you can get a much better idea of the hikes and terrain than you can get from the screenshot above. For some ideas, check out Using Google Earth Track Files.
It has been many months since I was last able to get out on a trail. Today we went only a short distance on the trail so I’m labeling this a Walk. But … it was .. a trail .., with a name – Monte Largo Trail. On the way, we went wandering about Tierra Grande, a very large, totally open, nearly absolutely flat expanse west of the Manzano Mountains and south of Albuquerque. A developer years ago laid out roads and plots of land for habitation – a few sites have houses, in most case miles from the next one.
The DriveAbout
Tierra Grande Driveabout and Monte Largo Trail Walk.Pat.2025-03-07
Our DriveAbout began about 14 miles southeast from Belen on NM 47. There we turned northeast onto Tierra Grande Loop, then left onto Military Highway, both well maintained sand-and-gravel roads.We used GAIA maps as a guide to explore this vast open expanse of …. almost nothing. The roads were mostly well maintained – graded sand/small gravel and many with ditches. Wishing to explore closer to the Manzanos, we turned right on Stable Drive, then left on Tango Road. We ignored a Dead End sign, but …. we had to turn around when we encountered a deep ravine across the road – not for the Tacoma.
Backtracking to Military Highway, we headed north setting our sights on the Monte Largo Trailhead. A turn right on Commerce Blvd, then a right onto Celaya Blvd took us to the trailhead, a large gravel parking lot with a break in the fence for the Monte Largo Trail.
The route out was to take Celaya around to a turn right onto Commerce Blvd, then left onto Progress Blvd. About a mile on, we turned right on an unnamed road, continued to Commerce Blvd, where we turned left to Military Highway. Then it was a right turn onto Military Hwy. About .6 mile from Commerce Blvd we encountered the largest drifts of tumbleweed ever seen; they blocked the road dictating that we skirt them to the right of the roadway – amazing. Than a bit further along Military Hwy ended, but on the left was a cattle guard that allowed us to get onto Trigo Springs Road. From there we turned left at the next intersection onto N Navajo Loop and a straight shot to Belen, arriving in time to have lunch at the Whistle Stop Cafe in the Belen Harvey House Museum (a great lunch and interesting museum).
Now that route is in some places quite convoluted. One could find more direct routes, with some better planning than we did, or with better mapping on-the-go. But we were exploring/wandering. And we’ll do some more in coming weeks.
The Walk
Notes about the Google Earth screenshot: the graph at the bottom shows elevation of the track (pink area) and speed (the blue line).
Having not hiked for 10 months, this for me was an exploratory excursion. For a month I’ve been walking up to 3 miles on the level, smooth Bosque Trails along the Rio Grande. But to be on a real trail with uneven surfaces, rocks, even ups-and-downs, would be “breaking new ground” and testing my endurance.
For the distance we walked, the trail was well used and easy to follow. The first quarter mile was a gentle slope among junipers above the bottom of the canyon on the south side. The trail then descended into the bottom and continued, again with gentle slope. We chose to stop this day at .6 mile; at that point the trail joined a two-track that shows on the GAIA map. So only 1.85 miles, but I felt quite comfortable being back on the trail, and looking forward to more hikes and miles in coming weeks/months; I plan to return here to go further on the Monte Largo Trail.
Highlight
We’ve seen nowhere else the variety of rocks in this canyon. It must be a special place for student geologists. Some had the appearance of lava, others petrified wood (‘tho not). There would be changes in colors – within one rock. We found small pieces of quartz, and a couple of -large- pieces. Some had swirls like they were kneaded during their formation, other striations. All another work of Mother Nature’s art.
Statistics
Total Distance: 1.85 miles
Elevation: start 6,251 ft, maximum 6,402 ft, minimum 6,251 ft
Gross gain: 151 ft. Aggregate ascending 246 ft, descending 246 ft
Maximum slope: 19% ascending, % 22descending, 7.1% average
Duration: , Average Speed: mph
If you haven’t explored these hiking tracks with Google Earth, I urge you to try it. With the virtual 3-dimensional presentation, achieved by panning and tilting the view, you can get a much better idea of the hikes and terrain than you can get from the screenshot above. For some ideas, check out Using Google Earth Track Files.
