Before today, every hike I’d done in Placitas was a destination: I went out there to hike Las Huertas Creek, or Piedra Lisa Trail, or the Strip Mine Trail, or Tunnel Spring.
Today we learned Placitas could just be a journey.
We started at the main Placitas-area trailhead two and a half miles east of I-25. We worked our way south on a couple of mountain bike trails. (How you know you’re on a mountain bike trail: 1) you frequently have to jump out of the way of mountain bikers; 2) there are tons of banked corkscrew turns.)
A blanket of clouds covered much of the Rio Grande Valley, muting the colors of the mesas and mountains. But as we gradually climbed up and east, the sky above the Sandia Mountains began to clear to a brilliant blue.
The trail we were on dead-ended at a Forest Service road, and that’s when the possibilities for just wandering began to multiply. First we realized we could use the Forest Service road to make a loop back to the trailhead. I scrambled up a steep side trail just to get closer to the brilliant sky.
As we headed back, the cloud cover did a 180. The green tops of the mesas on Santa Ana Pueblo began to glow, while behind us, the mountains dimmed as the clouds blocked their light. We could see all the way to St. Peter’s Dome in the Dome Wilderness, 30 air miles away.
I eyeballed the many side trails leading into the Sandia wilderness on our way back. Using the full Placitas and Sandias trail networks, plus the entire forest road, someone on foot could ramble for an entire day.
One of these days, someone on foot will.
Hike length: 5 miles
Difficulty: moderate
Trail traffic: moderate
Wildlife spotted: chickadees, cicada larva (?)
Woman Seeks Elevation 
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