New Mexico Outdoor 

Roughing It In Luxury-Abiquiu, New Mexico 505.901.7321

Caballo Peak

On a beautiful summer morning we are at Pajarito Ski Mountain (Los Alamos), starting point for our hike to Caballo Peak, a 17 mile roundtrip! Our dog Weezer is with us. He is the perfect hiking companion. Should the mileage sound deterrent to you, don’t worry. One can easily divide this hike in three parts depending on one’s physical condition and time frame and still enjoy beautiful scenic views, meadows and wildflowers. We were on the trail for a total of 10 hours and would recommend the “full monty” only to experienced hikers in good physical condition.

Starting point at Pajarito Mountain with Los Alamos airport below.

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If you are just in for a short and easy hike, this could mark your turn around point. Total time: 1h. We continue our hike along the meadow and then slightly uphill through a beautiful stand of Aspens, crossing a ridge and down among Douglas fir. The smell of the wood is so intense, almost intoxicating.

After a while the trail reaches the first overlook into the Valle de los Posos, which is part of the huge Valles Caldera

PhotobucketValle de los Posos (Valley of the Holes)

We are now on the Guaje Canyon Trail section and we are hiking on the narrow rim of the Valles Caldera. At this point there are more spectacular views of the Valles Caldera and the prominent cliffs surrounding it.

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This is another turn around point if you just came for an easy hike. It’s about an 9 mile/4 h. roundtrip to Valle de los Posos Overlook.

But we continue towards our goal “Caballo Peak”. Now the tough part starts with a very steep descend into Guaje Canyon with lots of switch back turns.

PhotobucketBeginning to descend to Guaje Canyon Photobucket

 

At the bottom of the canyon we follow a pleasant little stream, which of course was particularly fun to Weezer who took a refreshing bath in it before tackling the very strenuous and steep ascend to Caballo Peak which required quite a few short rest stops:

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We reached the peak, sweaty and hungry but the reward was views galore in almost every direction and was definitely worth the hard work.

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After a well deserved pick-nick and a catnap by Weezer we started on our journey back.  

 

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By the time we crossed Canada Bonita again, the evening had come and we could admire it in a new and beautiful light

Photobucket   Gabriela
Warning:

The Book description of this, Caballo Peak, hike lists it at 15 miles. It's not! It's 17+!

 

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