As part of a trip to Santa Fe, we sought out a medium length trail, chose this loop in the Dale Ball Trails system.
The Drive In
The trail begins in the Sierra del Norte Trailhead, the first one heading up Hyde Park Road. There is ample parking there, and it serves as the trailhead for other trails in Dale Ball.
The Hike
Dale Ball Loop North.Pat.2019-05-23
We were greeted by a sign with everything one would like to know about the trial – a superb map with numbers identifying the junctions. And on the trail – copies of this map along with separate signs identifying the direction to proceed to the next numbered junction for your hike. The trail segments are well used, sandy and mostly smooth, amply wide – makes for easy traversing. The slope is general throughout – no really steep sections.
The trail we chose basically goes around the crest of a 250′ hill. First on the east side of the hill the views are towards the southern end of the Sangre de Cristo mountains with the Santa Fe Ski slopes to the north east. As one rounds to the west side of the hill the view is across Santa Fe, the Rio Grande valley, and on to the Parajito Mesa and the Jemez Mountains. Our trail finished back on the east side, where we encountered the steeper slopes back down to parking.
Statistics
Total Distance: 1.55 miles
Elevation: start 7,584 ft, maximum 7,831 ft, minimum 7,581 ft
Gross gain: 247 ft. Aggregate ascending 369 ft, descending 370 ft
Maximum slope: 24% ascending, 27% descending, 8.1% average
Duration: 0:54
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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
Santa Fe County: Santa Fe Foothill Trails Map (PDF)
Santa Fe Conservation Trust: Dale Ball Trails
AllTrails: Dale Ball Trails North (we confined our hike to the southern end)
