You know that giant hill in Los Lunas? You can hike it. It’s awesome.

We were on our way to a mysterious place a friend had told me about, a place in Los Lunas where you can hike for hours without seeing anyone.

I’d looked up maps and directions. But it wasn’t till I turned off the interstate and started driving toward it that I realized: Holy crap, I’m climbing THAT hill.

It’s the major feature of Los Lunas as you’re driving through on I-25: a long, wide, tall, shadowy hill. It’s enormous, and a little foreboding.

Our hiking destination’s name: El Cerro de Los Lunas. Translation, “the hill of Los Lunas.” Roger.

Let’s dispense with a few things: On the one-mile trail leading into the preserve (creatively named “Trail Head Trail”), you could be forgiven for thinking the only color in the world was beige. There’s no shade anywhere in the preserve. For a good five months a year, El Cerro de Los Lunas is undoubtedly the same temperature as the surface of the sun, its volcanic rock crawling with rattlesnakes.

That leaves you seven months of the year to enjoy its delights – and there are many.

We climbed onto the Overlook Trail, ascending steeply and gazing down into what appeared to be a giant scooped-out bowl of sherbet. Pale pink, orange, beige, white and gray striations stretched before us. An enormous bird, so large we thought it might be an eagle, swooped over a ridge, evading even our binoculars.

As we meandered around the sherbet bowl, snow-capped Mount Taylor came into view, then the arrowhead range of the Sierra Ladrones. Behind the Ladrones was a cloud-covered range that I thought had to be the San Mateos or Magdalenas. High plains rolled away below.

We watched a couple scramble up a 60-degree incline from the bottom of the sherbet bowl to the Overlook Trail. That made me really nervous, but they made it.

Crows wheeled above, calling to each other. Faraway train whistles echoed from the rail switching yard 10 miles south. We rounded the south end of the hill and the village of Los Lunas stretched below us. Though it only has 15,000 people, it looked enormous. A bend in the Rio Grande glimmered.

At the top, we found an incredible view of four ranges to the east, from the Sandias back in Albuquerque to the Manzanitas, the snow-capped Manzanos and the Los Pinos Mountains.

We hiked nearly seven miles and didn’t even cover half the marked trails. Among those we missed: the trail that explores the sherbet bowl (called – wait for it – “Bowl Trail.”)

Next time I drive through Los Lunas, I will look at that giant hill very differently, knowing there’s a whole world up there.

Hike length: 6.5 miles

Difficulty: moderate

Wildlife spotted: hawk or eagle, crows, sparrows, lizards, tiny dragonflies

Trail traffic: busy on Trail Head Trail, some traffic on lower section of Overlook Trail, none at the top