Cumbres Pass and the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) are a favorite destination and hike. You will find other posts of our visits there, one solo, another with Pat, and still another with Jay and Nancy. For this trip, we reserved Campsite 13 at the Heron Lake “Willow Creek” campground. Many of the sites in this campground are quite nice; Site 13 offered a through-drive with room for 2 vehicles, and 2 or 3 spots suitable for tent camping (since Pat didn’t make this trip, I brought a tent to sleep in).
The Drive In
I will leave it to you to find your way to the Heron Lake campgrounds, and from Heron (if you camp there) to Chama. From Chama, continue north on NM 17 for 12 miles (..uphill.. from 7,900 feet to 10,000 feet at the pass) following the tracks of the Cumbres & Toltec Railroad (a National Historic Landmark). You will leave New Mexico for Colorado about 5 miles below the pass, continue on CO 17. Maybe 200 yards before reaching the summit, use the parking area on your right; there is a sign above the parking lot for CDT Trailhead #813. (The CDT goes both north and south from here – we hiked to the north, across the highway from the sign.)
The Hike
Notes about the Google Earth screenshot: the graph at the bottom shows elevation of the track (pink area) and speed (the blue line).
From parking, we crossed the highway and under the C&TRR trestle; the trailhead is just beyond. The first quarter mile is uphill, through an area of open forest. Then across an flat open area before taking on the climb. For the next 1.4 mile or so the trail climbs, traversing a steep slope (as Jay says, FARD – Fall and Roll Downhill).
From there the trail continues on a not-so-steep slope across an open hillside. Twice the trail crosses a tiny “valley”, the 2nd at 2.2 miles which had a bit of water draining from above. We continued until encountering a flowing stream which would require wading to cross; we decided to pause here for lunch, then return to the trailhead. (As I had done on my solo hike, added our names to the logbook.
Jay here: Like finding a missing cufflink, we now have the matching set of CDT hikes: North and South. Very different in character. CDTS was mostly open along the ridge tops and with wide views of the valley below. CDTN was more confined in some ways but still had extended views to the ridges we hiked on CDTS the prior year. The steep portions were not FOAD (Fall Off And Die) but you could roll a long way down before arresting your descent. Bo did a great job for a little Westie, even jumping over logs a few times.
Highlight
The views from the beginning of this section are magnificent. Here’s an excerpt from a hike with Pat back in 2022 that will give you an idea:
Statistics
Total Distance: 5.77 miles
Elevation: start 9,976 ft, maximum 10,303 ft, minimum 9,961 ft
Gross gain: 342 ft. Aggregate ascending 1,225 ft, descending 1,239 ft
Maximum slope: 23% ascending, 23% descending, 6.1% average
Duration: 4:26, Average Speed: 1.3 mph
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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.
Related Posts
References and Resources
USDA Forest Service: CDNST – Cumbres Pass North Trailhead # 813
AllTrails: Cumbres Pass CDT North
Continental Divide Trail Coalition: Cumbres Pass on the CDT, …
Taos News: Hiking in Southren Colorado: Cumbres Pass North to Wolf Creek Falls
Photos
Once atop the ridge, we had marvelous views, east to the Sandia Mountains and west across Dragon’s Back itself to Cabezon beyond. From reconnoitering on GoogleEarth, we planned to take the loop clockwise so as to -descend- on the steepest section of the trail.
Thus we turned left (west) atop this mesa, then to descend on what a sign identified as the “Spine”. We shortly encountered a steep descent through a cleft in rocks. Then we continued on to the spine. And a spine it was, a narrow ridge (<20′ wide), descending gradually at first.
The soil is such that when wet, it becomes very slippery. To make the descent safe, we squatted, braced ourselves on the edges of the “trail”, and duck-walked down. With the weight of my pack, I was comfortable only by sitting down and working my way down a foot or two at a time.
Once we were down into the canyon, the trail was smooth and level – for 300 yards or so. We then began a climb up on the ridge that splits the middle of the canyon. Up on the ridge we had a great view of the length of Dragon’s Back, with Cabezon on the horizon beyond. Along the way we came upon one of the many springs that dot this area, surrounded by a mound of gypsum that continued downhill, from years (decades?) of evaporation of the spring water. I was curious, thinking maybe the water was warm – nope, it was cool.
We continued north on this ridge until our planned turn-around point. Before heading back towards the trailhead, we went a bit further to show Nancy & Jay the big hole Pat & I had discovered on our earlier hike (
The route back started on a two-track which we followed for about 3/4 mile, at which point we took the bike trail to the right. That went well, easy to follow and an easy surface. The views to the west across the canyon were studding, with many variations of red, white, yellow, even some bluish tints in the canyon walls, punctuated by snow in shaded areas. Continuing to follow the GAIA track of the bike trail, once atop the ridge we came to a Y junction; we chose the one to the left that followed the GAIA track. 
Some 300 yards on we encountered a -very narrow- section with a steep slope falling off to the right, and a sign that warned that it was a dangerous route – it was too risky for us. And it is hard for us to imagine that people would take that narrow trail on mountain bikes. So we retraced our steps to the Y junction and took the other leg that took us back to the top of the narrow ravine that we climbed through on our way from the trailhead.
We considered descending that ravine, but chose instead to continue west on the bike trail, then pick up the 2-track that would take us to Cabezon Road, then a third of a mile to the trailhead. ‘Twas a good choice to finish what had been a challenging adventure, an easy downhill trek, then head to Bernalillo and a beer at Bosque Brewing.
