Little Tesuque Creek Hike – 10/28/2018 - Hiking in New Mexico (NMHiking.com)

‘Twas a beautiful autumn day in New Mexico, ideal temperature, no wind, amazingly colorful cottonwoods down in the canyon, and snow on Mount Baldy. We set out on this hike to explore one of the many trails off of Hyde Park Road, starting in the Little Tesuque Open Space. We had passed by this trailhead on the way to an earlier hike (Chamisa-Saddleback) but had missed seeing the trailhead (parking is alongside the road, no parking lot).

The Hike

Little Tesuque Creek Hike.Jay.2018-10-28

The beginning of the trail isn’t obvious, it angles down into the canyon off of the edge of the road. But once down into Little Tesuque Creek canyon it becomes a trail easy to follow, and easy hiking sloping gently down-stream. A mile into the hike we took the left onto La Piedra Trail, where the sign pointed to the “Dale Ball Trails” (to the right would be towards the Winsor Trail). From here it was uphill to the top of the ridge for great views out across Santa Fe to the southwest, and towards the core of the Sangre de Christos and snow-covered Mount Baldy to the northeast.

We continued on (down), then back up again to a junction, the starting point of a loop and going into La Piedra Open Space. We went around the right side, and at the far end of the loop stopped for our mid-hike break. Here we found a most informative sign with a panorama view and labels identifying major features in across the Rio Grande valley and the Jemez Mountains. Then we headed back (taking the right side again to complete the loop) and retracing our route back to parking.

Jay here: Beautiful New Mexico fall weather makes great hiking opportunities like this one even better. That uphill slog to the top of the ridge must have had close to 40 switchbacks of the type that we do not encounter all that often. If my pointing finger is going to continue getting such a prominent role in the photos I will have to consider getting a pre-hike manicure.