Elena Gallegos Preserve Hike - backpacking pictures
Below the Sandias in Albuquerque, New Mexicoby dovecenter The Elena Gallegos Preserve is one of the most widely used park spaces in Albuquerque. Located at the very center of the Sandia range, it hosts meadows once used as a ranch, rolling hills of junipers and higher paths to Los Pinos, where the pine trees give year round greenery to the range's semi circular center.
The Preserve has ample parking for hikers and there are covered picnic areas throughout its lower entrance. Here bikers have challenging hilly roadways & bikeways to test their skills. The Gallegos Preserve is user friendly for the physically challenged, with wide pathways for wheelchair access. This area is also very doggy friendly, with doggy bag stations, however, remember to keep your pet on a leash and on the trail as there are an abundance of tiny thorny cactus in the lower desert meadows. Bring plenty of water for your pet, also, as there is no water beyond the parking area, and since the meadow area is open, a pet can easily get dehydrated quickly.
In the northern area of the Preserve is Cottonwood Creek area that has some nice walking areas over well kept bridges, covered info stations that have beautiful ceramic tile plaques telling of the habitat areas, and a large bird blind building with many observation holes to watch the birds and mammals in the reeded year round pond.
Walking through the center trail of the lower meadow, one can visit an interesting stone sculpture grouping and sit in a stone chair dedicated to one of Albuquerque's great outdoorsmen.
From the large information and map station at the top of the meadow, the Los Pinos trail starts to wind and become more of an undulating trail through ever increasing hills. The path is fairly easy for a first timer and one sees all ages on the trail, from peppy youngsters, to the more tempered oldsters with their walking sticks.
There are a few boulders to walk around, and the small gravel can be slippery in parts, but it is still a nicely graded climb past acres of juniper trees and upper desert foliage.
Since the preserve is a wide expanse, there are spectacular views of the jutting Sandia pillars and the larger flat mountain ridge line.
As one ascends, the trail is continually sheltered from any drop-off areas with wide expanses of hill space, so this is a wonderful, safe hike for those with a fear of heights.
Farther into the hike, the trail becomes more shaded with tall pines as it winds around the rounded hillsides. There is an abundance of wildflowers of all shapes and colors during the spring and with this year's surprisingly abundant rainfall, there was a "second blooming" of spectacular color. Even in this late summer, the usually trickling mountain streams can be heard booming out their voices over the rocky watershed paths to the desert arroyos.
Only in the higher hike to the crest (about 4 1/2 miles) does one encounter a few switchback trails along some rocky faces and shady tree areas.
Once on top of this center mountain ridge saddle, one can step up on rocky outcroppings to see 80 miles West to Mount Taylor and far to the East to see Santa Fe and the distant Sangre de Cristo range.
A crest path runs perpendicular to the Los Pinos trail, and can continue on the Upper Sandia Crest & Tramway, or to the left and to lower peak trails. Number Pictures:20 Date Created: 9/4/06
