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| | | Willie White Willis Canyon Loop, NM | | | |
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Willie White Willis Canyon Loop, NM
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| Hiking | 11.91 Miles |
1,543 AEG |
| | Hiking | 11.91 Miles | 5 Hrs 52 Mns | | 2.04 mph |
| 1,543 ft AEG | 1 Min Break | | | |
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| partners | | On our second day in Cloudcroft we headed down the Sun Spot Highway past Uranus (see photos) and took the Rio Penasco Road to Bluff Spring. The Willie White Trail Head is about a half mile past the spring or you can take the Willie White Spur Trail that starts at the spring. This loop hike is along old logging rails that traverse the ridge between Rio Penasco and Wills canyons.
We did the hike in a CCW direction along the Willie White then Wills Canyon in the CCW direction. the majority of the climb is on the way in and downhill on the way back. The Willie White Trail has a gradual climb the whole way with it being a little steeper as you approach the summit but nothing what I would call steep. Very scenic hike up Willie White Creek from its start at the Rio Penasco to the summit on the crest of the ridge. The Willie White and the Wills Canyon Trail junction is on the crest of the ridge. The Willie White Trail continues on down Telephone Canyon to the Waters Canyon Road to its western trail Head, we didn’t do that portion. The Wills Canyon Trail heads down the ridge toward Hubbell and Wills Canyons which is at 1.25 miles. It is little bit steep and rocky along this section of the trail making the going a little slower. There were at least two springs along this section with a light flow. At the junction of the Hubbell and Wills Canyons the Upper Wills Canyon Trail heads off to the west and the Wills Canyon Trail heads east at a fairly level rate and makes its way along the side of the ridge to connect back up with the Willie White Trail. Nice views over Wills Canyon along this trail but they are limited by the trees.
I thought this was a very nice trail that typifies the forest around Cloudcroft, Pine fir forest with lush green meadows along the creeks. The grasses are nicely manicured by the elk and deer. I believe from the amount of elk I have seen around Cloudcroft that the elk population in this forest is over populated. I’m not an expert on this though. We didn’t see any elk along this hike but it was mid day, to see more wildlife it is best early morning late afternoon. On the drive in for this hike we believe we saw a wolf along the Rio Penasco Road, was too big for a coyote and had a lot more fir. On a side note Ginny and I saw a Young Mountain Lion near my house in vail, probably coming in to the area to get easy picking breakfast, cats and small dogs. |
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