This web site describes my year-long undertaking to hike all of the
trails in the Sandia Mountains. Most Albuquerque residents have
made the tortuous trudge up the La Luz Trail at one time or another.
To the majority of people, if you mention hiking in the Sandias, that
is the one thing that comes to mind.
In fact the mountain is covered with hiking trails of all sorts, lengths, and difficulty. This web site describes about 40 hikes that I took in the year 2000, covering more than 50 separate trails, and something over 250 miles. Before I began this project, I had covered most of the ground described here. However, it had been about five years since my last hike. My middle-aged body was beginning to do what middle-aged bodies tend to do if left neglected. I decided to try to hike all of the trails in the mountain within the coming calendar year. This web site is a collection of my hiking notes from that experience.
I hiked all of the trails again in 2001, this time carrying a GPS. I have updated the narratives describing each hike to include GPS waypoints (coordinates). The complete set of over 300 waypoints across the Sandia Mountains is available to download in several different file formats.
There are other excellent resources available for hiking in the Sandia Mountains, so why did I decide to publish this one? One of the challenges that I enjoy is figuring out how to combine different trails into nice combinations or loops so that I don't necessarily cover the same ground "out and back" on a hike. I like pouring over the maps to see how to cover a lot of area and to see a lot of scenery in the most efficient way. In addition some trails, like the Crest Trail system, are so long that they can't be covered in a single stretch. It is somewhat of a challenge to figure out how to break the trail system down into reasonable chunks, yet ultimately cover the whole thing.
In addition, some parts of the mountain are impassable due to snow for up to half the year. The hikes described here are laid-out in an order to cover the lower ground when the mountain top is liable to be covered with snow. Hikes reaching the upper parts of the mountain are saved until later in the year.
If there is a way to get disoriented or to lose a given trail in the Sandias, believe me I've done it at one time or another. I have always kept a hiking diary to record any "tricks" for finding a certain trail, or landmarks to look for along the way, or how to find the spot that one trail crosses another. Some trails are just plain hard to find. For example, I'm sure that I tried to find Chimney Canyon Trail a half dozen times before I learned exactly how to do it. This web site is meant to help all of us navigate the paths that are "off the beaten path."
Of course, you don't need to follow the order of the hikes that I have listed, nor cover all of the trails in a year as I have described. However, if you enjoy the challenge, are goal-oriented (I think that must be a euphemism for something else), and can invest the time, the order outlined here will take you through all of the major trails in the Sandia Mountains in one year.
I hope that you enjoy the trails and the wide range of hiking opportunities in the Sandia Mountains as much as I have. If this web site opens up new outdoor experiences and appreciation for the wilderness "right next-door," then it will have done its job.