An early hike Pat & I made in Albuquerque’s Elena Gallegos Open Space. One of more than a dozen Open Space lands, Elena Gallegos has numerous hiking and biking trails within it’s boundaries, and trailheads for trails into the Sandia Mountain Wilderness.
The Hike
Pino Hike.Pat.2012-08-12
Pino is a truly great trail, amazing to be so close to the city. The initial quarter of a mile, within Elena Gallegos, is on well-traveled, two-abreast, sand covered surface; tho’ it is uphill (2% grade), it is flat and an easy walk and not forested. Leaving Elena Gallegos and entering the Wilderness, the trail continues to be well traveled tho’ it gradually becomes one-abreast and with some rocky stretches, enters the juniper and pinon forest setting, and continues uphill (thus the 1,241 ft elevation gain over the 2.5 mile hike to our turn-around).
Statistics
Total Distance: 5.27 miles
Elevation: 6,460 start, 7,701 maximum, 6,460 minimum
Gross gain: 1,241 ft. Aggregate ascending 1,543 ft, descending: 1,581 ft
Maximum slope: 36% ascending, 42% descending, 11% average
Duration: 3:53
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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
Sandia Mountain Hiking Guide: “Pino Trail”
ASCHG: “Pino Trail Short Hike”
“Pino Trail to Crest Trail Hike”
Albuquerque Open Space: “Foothills Trail Map”
US Forest Service: “Sandia Mountain Trails”
Sangre.com: “Sandia Mountain Wilderness”
Wilderness.net: “Sandia Mountain Wilderness Fact Sheet”
Hiking Project: “Pino Trail”
AllTrails.com: “Pino Trail“
I’ve been quite surprised and enjoyed tremendously the amazing variety of flowers throughout the mountains, whether the Sandias, Manzanos, or Jemez. I recently discovered my fascination began on our early hikes (I’m writing this in 2017), with this collection of photos of flowers we came across during this hike in 2012.
