Sandia Mountain Wilderness, Pino Trail

During a visit to Albuquerque, NM we had some limited time for a hike. We decided on Pino trail since it’s a shorter trail and we hadn’t done it in over 23 years. We started at the Cottonwood Spring parking lot in the Elena Gallegos Open Space in the foothills of the Sandia Mountains. The trail is about 4.7 miles and gains around 2700 ft in elevation before reaching the crest trail.

We started hiking around 9:30 and reached the crest around 12pm. At the top the views were limited by dense brush and small trees so we headed north for a bit on the South Crest trail until we got close to a short ridge with a high point labeled 9627. We left the trail and walked up a gentle slope following deer trails until we go the the spot marked 9627 on the map. Trees also obstructed our views here, but a little to the south we got some decent views to the east and west. We had a quick lunch while enjoying the views before heading back down.

Overall we hiked 10.9 miles and gained about 3200ft in elevation. Temperatures were comfortable with the lows in the trees up top in the upper 30’s.

(Click on any photo to enlarge/start slide show)

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.