San Pedro Parks • Hike • New Mexico • All Triplogs • HikeArizona.COM

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Oct 03 2024

adenium

Guides 4
Routes 93
Photos 302
Triplogs 697

51 male

Joined Jul 05 2008
Gilbert, AZ

San Pedro Parks

North Central, NM

San Pedro Parks

North Central, NM

Backpack		Oct 03 2024
		adenium • Triplogs 697

Backpack	30.43 Miles	2,254 AEG

Backpack	30.43 Miles	4 Days
	2,254 ft AEG

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DAY ONE (packed in 5.78 miles, 2h and 14m)
Woke up too early, but I'm glad I did because I had time at the end of the long drive to walk into a decent campsite, otherwise I would have stayed in a FS campground. Along the way I bookmarked a couple of spots with good fire rings, but I didn't encounter too many once I got up into the higher elevations. I ended up camping without a fire on the first night. It was supposed to get down into the 30s and having a fire would have been nice but no need to create a new scar here. I found a spot right on the creek and was able to filter water plenty fine, even though there were a few ancient cow pies around. Water was also a little tannic looking, but it came out clear and taste free. Some pretty good size fish up here. This would have been a good time to pick up tenkara fishing.

DAY TWO (packed 8.16 miles, 4h 34m)
Well, that was a long cold night. Having lived in AZ so long I forget how cold places work. That nice spot by the creek was probably the lowest spot in the valley. Oops. I have no idea what time I woke up, but I had to wait till the sun came up because it was absolutely freezing. There was a rime of ice at the top of my Nalgene bottles. When I opened the tent flap, I was greeted with frost everywhere. Beautiful but frigid. Seemed like a good excuse to just lay back down and contemplate my full bladder for a while. By the time I got up the frost had started burning off. Within an hour everything was dry. Got packed up, had a visitor come over and chat me up for a while... A gentleman from Nebraska with his two horses. The day's hike was uneventful. Lots of gorgeous views. Did some geocaching along the way and I lunched at the remains of a neat old cabin. I'm glad I got a new pair of boots. This area can be a little marshy, even at the end of the summer. I would imagine this area is a swampy mess in the spring and early summer. The place I picked for my second night wasn't far from the cabin and situated on a knoll well above the creek. I had eyeballed a promising spot on Google Maps and sure enough there was a nice fire ring there. Down below in the creek was deep hole in the creek. As I walked up a couple of trout scudded under an overhang. They looked pretty good size. Not a lot of people out here, which is a nice change of pace.

DAY THREE (two day hikes at 4 miles, 1h 32m and 5.24 miles, 2h 6m respectively)
Made it through the night and slept surprisingly well. Temps were much comfier atop my knoll. I made a rare morning fire and enjoyed the peacefulness of this place. Took a four mile stroll cross country to an adjacent valley. Crazy amount of deadfall in the forest. Rested a while after my little walk and tended to my blisters. Glad I brought my camp chair; I thought it was going to be the white elephant of the trip but it turned out it's a nice thing to have if you plan to just sit around doing nothing all day. Later in the afternoon, I rose from my torpor and strolled north along the CDT toward the high point of the area. I came upon a through-hiker who reported that he was four months into a five-month journey. At the high point, I admired what little views there were. The trees obscure most of the views, but I think I could see east to the Jemez Mountains and the Sangre de Cristos beyond. Back in camp, I had an early dinner and got myself ready to depart in the morning.

DAY FOUR (packed out 7.25 miles, 2h 42m)
Hike-out day. Got up before sunrise and packed up and was on the trail within the hour. Uneventful trip out. Hope I can return someday. This is such a special area.

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Jul 04 2014

brougham86

Routes 20
Photos 191
Triplogs 20

45 male

Joined Aug 05 2010
Glendale AZ

San Pedro Parks

North Central, NM

San Pedro Parks

North Central, NM

Hiking		Jul 04 2014
		brougham86 • Triplogs 20

Hiking	8.90 Miles	1,726 AEG

Hiking	8.90 Miles
	1,726 ft AEG

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This was my second trip to the San Pedro Parks. I really needed a slow-paced, low-mileage weekend of fishing and relaxing. Spent Thursday night in Albuquerque, did some shopping and exploring.

4th of July morning, drove North on 550, meeting my buddy Bonita at the trailhead at 10am. Some sprinkles on the hike in, then bright sunshine for a while. This trail (Palomas Trail) has all of its elevation gain in the first mile or so. Very pleasant hike through Spruce forest and high parkland most of the way. A Biblical deluge hit around 3pm, forcing us into our shelters for about an hour and a half. Incredible lightning, thunder, rain, hail and sleet. I have never experienced a storm quite like it not in the safety of a house or car. When it was all over, the ground was saturated, as was almost all our gear. Luckily my down sleeping bag made it through unscathed. Friday night was wet but warm. Storms threatened all weekend, so we spent much of Saturday keeping wood dry and tending a fledgling fire, which finally roared to full flame that evening. Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout were aggressively biting on Caddis, and we bagged the limit in no time. Dinner was tasty. Rum and hot chocolate aplenty, a guitalele, and some old songs finished the night.

Bonita hiked out early Sunday. Fished some more Sunday morning before some storms threatened in the early afternoon. By this time my stupid dog was showing signs of stomach issues, so I decided to bail. It was only 4.5 miles back to the car, but she had a real hard time. Glad I left when I did. Every time I take her, the threshold for NOT taking her on a trip gets lower. Spent Sunday night in Bernalillo, and sure enough, she puked in the hotel room. Elk poop and grass, yum.

Glad I made it back there. Will certainly go back and explore more. I would like to see more of this place. Next time, no dog, more fishing. Oh, I left my party lights hanging from a spruce at camp. Off to REI I go. And two of my toenails fell off.

Fauna

Fauna [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Cutthroat Trout

Culture

Culture [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Camp-fire Campsite Fraley Pose HAZ Food Trail Signs and Markings

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] San Pedro Parks Wilderness

Meteorology

Meteorology [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Hail Rain

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May 03 2014

philnewell

Guides 1
Routes 2
Photos 125
Triplogs 2

65 male

Joined Mar 10 2010
Scottsdale, AZ

San Pedro Parks

North Central, NM

San Pedro Parks

North Central, NM

Backpack		May 03 2014
		philnewell • Triplogs 2

Backpack	41.64 Miles	6,795 AEG

Backpack	41.64 Miles	4 Days 17 Hrs 39 Mns
	6,795 ft AEG

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We spent 5 day backpacking through the San Pedro Parks Wilderness in early May 2014. This adventure was planned using online resources, so we were not sure exactly what to expect. I purchased the USGS quads, knowing that the actual trail names used do not match the USGS. The Forest Service map (San Pedro Parks Wilderness) does give the correct trail names and is highly recommended if you are not using a route from a GPS. The Quads and GPS route worked well, but we still had to double back a couple of times after heading in the wrong direction.

The Parks are beautiful, very isolated once you get a couple of miles away from the trailheads. The only boot prints we saw in five days were on the CDT section, and that one set!

We hit patches of deep snow when the trail went through deep forest, but mostly the going was clear. The trails in general were well marked and easy to find (except when buried under snow). We had one issue with trail 452 (Corralitos) between CDT and 451 (Cecilia) which we never found, even though we crisscrossed the theoretical track based on the GPS route. The way was nothing but downfall for over a mile, exhausting, and to be avoided until it is cleared.

There was plenty of water in the streams at this time of year, in fact even the streams that were indicated as intermittent were all flowing well. Most streams were brown with tannins, but many of the intermittents were clear.
All that water leads to many marshy areas, so if you wear Ventilator style boots you are going to have wet feet most of the day, which I am ok with, bring a couple of spare pairs of socks. Waterproof boots would have been a blessing on this trip.

We saw Eagle, Elk and many other small animals. Plenty of Bear scratch on the trees but no signs of current activity.

Good weather up to the penultimate day of the hike when the wind came up and a couple of flurries came through. We dry camped along the Clear Creek trail that night and hiked out the next morning in a heady snow storm for an hour or so.

This is a beautiful area and a great multiday backpacking destination. Not too tough, although the elevation made 9 miles a day seem like about 12 miles! The Post Holing through snow, or circumnavigating it also added to the difficulty.

Culture

Culture [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Postholing

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WARNING! Hiking and outdoor related sports can be dangerous. Be responsible and prepare for the trip. Study the area you are entering and plan accordingly. Dress for the current and unexpected weather changes. Take plenty of water. Never go alone. Make an itinerary with your plan(s), route(s), destination(s) and expected return time. Give your itinerary to trusted family and/or friends.

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