Grandson Thomas came for a weeks-long visit. Our original plan was to take the R-Pod to the Coal Mine Campground on Mount Taylor, visit El Malpais Lava Tubes and climb to the peak of Mount Taylor. After the advance visit to the Lava Tubes, and with weather forecast to be -hot-, we went instead to Red River, NM. We found our way to the Columbine Campground (Forest Service) and found a walk-in campsite that was ideal.
The Drive In
After a good night’s rest and a cool start to the day (42 degrees at daybreak), we set out to take a “short”, easy hike up the Columbine Trail. The trailhead is at the south end of the campground and proceeds up Columbine Canyon, following Columbine Creek.
The Hike
Columbine Trail Hike.PatThomas.2019-08-22
The trail is well used – we saw only a few hikers on the way up. (During our return, we did meet a large group of teenagers who were staying in the group campground.) The trail does make for an “easy” hike: it is wide with a surface for easy walking and a gentle slope/elevation gain. The combination of easy going and such pleasant surroundings – we ended up going further than planned. Having not planned on a full hike, we didn’t have the usual mid-hike vitctules, but none-the-less, we paused for a while in a nice meadow before heading back to the campground. 
Two features of the Trail and Canyon contributed to our enjoyment: being constantly near the stream, hearing the rush of water and seeing the many cascades and small waterfalls, and the abundance of interesting flowers, mosses, lichen, even butterflies. As a result, we frequently paused to admire things around us, and to take photos in hopes of being able to convey to others what we were experiencing (and for our own memories).
We had planned this for a short hike to leave time to visit Red River and to attend a Chuckwagon Supper and a concert by Michael Martin Murphey at his Rocking 3M Ranch. This made for a really enjoyable evening – good food, wonderful music, in a beautiful place.
Statistics
Total Distance: 3.07 miles
Elevation: start 7,917 ft, maximum 8,324 ft, minimum 7,910 ft
Gross gain: 414 ft. Aggregate ascending 910 ft, descending 916 ft
Maximum slope: 39% ascending, 37% descending, 9.0% average
Duration: 2:44
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I urge you to explore our hiking tracks with Google Earth. 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 2-dimensional screenshot above. For assistance: Using Google Earth Track Files.
References and Resources
The Campground:
USDA Forest Service: Columbine Campground
Recreation.gov: Columbine Campground (Nm)
TheDyrt: Columbine Campground (Nm) (reviews)
The Trail:
USDA Forest Service: Columbine Canyon Trail #71
AllTrails: Columbine Trail
This is a collection of photos of plant life that makes these hikes in the New Mexico mountains so fascinating. The colors of the things growing catch our attention and we stop often to admire them, and attempt to capture them in photos. This collection has flowers we encountered (it was late in the summer, we imagine there are many more a month ago), brightly colorful leaves and berries, interesting lichen and mosses, and the most interesting patterns of bark on the aspen and fir trees.
