Piedra Lisa Trail
 | This trail in the northwest portion of the Sandias takes you to places with excellent views of the Sandias and the Jemez. When we hiked, the view of the snow on the mountains against the deep blue sky was spectacular. When snow is not an issue, this is an excellent winter hike, although if done early it would be good in the summer as well. This trail requires a car at both ends (or hike there and back). |
| Hike data | Waypoints | Maps | Getting to the trailhead | About the hike | Plants along the trail | Comments |
|
| Date: | 1999-09-11 | 2004-01-18 |
| Time it took us: | 4:15. | 4:30. |
| Usage (people/hour): | 0.00. People per hour not recorded. | 5.88. |
| Cleanliness: | 9. | 9. |
| Waypoint | Type | Description |
| PLTHN | Trailhead | Peidra Lisa north trailhead |
| PLTHS | Trailhead | Piedra Lisa south trailhead |
| Map name | Cartographer | Year | Scale | Topo map? | Online access | Notes |
| Albuquerque New Mexico | USGS | 1983 | 1:100000 | Y | from sar.lanl.gov (free) | |
| Cibola National Forest, Sandia Ranger District | US Forest Service | 2006 | 1:63360 | N | From the National Forest Store (purchase) | Sandia Ranger District portion |
| Guide to Indian Country of Arizona Colorado New Mexico Utah | Automobile Club of Southern California | 1998 | 1:0 | N | Arizona Strip Interpretive Association (purchase) | Good overview road map for northwest NM. No scale is given on the map. The corner coordinates are approximate. |
| Wildernesses of New Mexico | US Forest Service | 1981 | 1:1000000 | N | No online copies. | Base map with national forests, wilderness areas and highways. |
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To get to the south trailhead:
Take Tramway north from I-40 or Tramway east from I-25. You are heading
for the ``corner'' of the mountain. Tramway makes a turn from
northbound to westbound (or eastbound to southbound, depending on your
direction of travel). Near this corner is a sign which says: Forest
Road 333, Tierra Monte, La Cueva PG, Juan Tabo PG. Take this road 2.0
miles to where it turns to dirt at the junction with Forest road 333D.
Another 0.3 miles and the road ends in the trailhead parking lot
(actually, the road does not end, but you come to a locked gate that
prohibits you from going any further).
|  |
| No image | To get to the north trailhead:
Take I-25 exit 242 (Placitas and NM 165). Head east 2.8 miles to a road
which may be Forest road 445. Take this road approximately 2.0 miles to a Y,
which may have a sign (it was lying beside the road when we last hiked
this trail). Go left at the Y and you are at the trailhead parking.
|
 | This description is the hike from south to north. If you are going the other direction, backwards this read. From the parking area, you hike up the road. As you hike up the boring road, look to your right for the first of what will become a long string of great views of the Sandias. |
A signpost says you have a 0.25 mile hike, but my GPS said it was more
like 0.44 miles. Here is what might be called the real trailhead.
|  |
 | After a short bit more hiking, you arrive at a junction and the sign
indicating you are about to enter the Sandia Mountain Wilderness.
|
Most of the trail is decomposed granite. However, keep your eyes open
for other, interesting rocks, such as this one which is full of mica.
|  |
 | This part of the trail is especially good in the winter; it is south-facing
and open enough that any snow is likely to melt quickly. It also climbs
rapidly.
|
The climb is such that by the time you reach the high point (pictured
here), you have climbed 1255 ft, which is about 80% of the total climbing
you will do. You have done it in 1/3 of the hiking distance.
|  |
The other side faces north, and snow is more likely to remain. Hike
carefully, if the conditions are icy. Lower down, you will hike out of the
snow unless it is recent or unusually heavy.
| |
On the other side, you get nice views of Albuquerque. It was hazy
looking that way, so we took no photos. On this side, you get nice
views of the Jemez mountains.
|  |
 | The snow gives you the ability to see more animal tracks.
|
The further you hike, the less likely you are to find snow on the trail. At about halfway, you will come across a sign indicating that you have reached the half-way point in your hike. Do not believe the distances, because our GPS indicates a longer hike than the published distance. |  |
 | On this side of the high point, the trail goes up a ridge and down the
other side several times. Each of these ridges is notably lower than
the first one you climbed (after all, you only have 20% of the elevation
gain remaining). On this side, as you get closer to the trailhead, you
will also run across multiple versions of the trail. We took a wrong
turn once, and then met up with the real trail again a few minutes later.
The real trail is less steep than these alternate versions. One of these
meeting places of alternate trails is near this large outcrop of quartz.
|
You still get good views of the Sandias from this side.
|  |
 | We wondered why the lichen only grew in the cracks of this rock. Does
it not like the taste of the rest?
|
Plants we saw along the trail:
Reader comments about this hike:
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For the past three years I have taken my high school sophomores hiking on the Piedra Lisa. We start at the north end and work our way south, and parents who dropped us off at the north end pick us up at the south end. I have to say, the kids love it. Every year they talk about how wonderful it was and how at first they had a hard time, but now they know they can hike challenging trails. This year, I am at a new school, and we have the kids do a challenge by choice: the La Luz, the Tree Spring, or the Crest Loop. I hope all goes well! We love your site! On Mon Feb 2 11:02:48 2009 Matt from Albuquerque, NM said:
A friend and myself hiked this trail SuperBowl Sunday 2009. We hiked from South to North. Going up the dirt road from the parking lot, we somehow passed the trailhead and did some of our own wandering til we eventually caught up to it. After that, the hike is a fairly steep grade of a climb to manage getting over the main ridge. Beautiful views as you reach the highpoint though. Beyond that it was careful steps through the snow/ice. Although it had been 50-55 degrees most of the week with no snow for at least 2 weeks, the snow remained fairly thick in a lot of places due to the north facing slope. The hike took us (25 yr old male and 28 yr old female in decent shape) about 3 hours even, with some short breaks for pictures/food. All in all we're very glad we did it. There weren't a lot of people we passed, maybe 4 or 5 (although most hikers take the south-north route also). It's a great afternooon winter hike that makes sittin in front of the TV watchin the big game afterwards all that much more relaxing. On Sun Feb 21 12:26:06 2010 Lori from Somewhere said:
I took this trail from the South Trailhead in February 2010, little bits of snow that I was able to work through withut a problem. Really, really beautiful, and well maintained trail. It was a bit confusing becase the first half mile has you walking on a dirt road used by the fancy solar-powered subdivision up there. On Sun Apr 3 18:09:20 2011 Megan from Albuquerque said:
We hiked the first weekend of April, 2011. We started at the south trail head, hiked to the ridge, and then took one of the ridge spur trails. Great views! We only saw 3 other hikers. On Mon Nov 28 12:39:19 2011 Catherine from Somewhere said:
I finally hiked this trail yesterday and my only regret is that I didn't do it earlier! For late November, the day was perfect - no snow on the south part of the trail, and I only needed a light sweater. I continued west on the Rincon Spur and had lunch at the end of that trail. I did not go north from the ridge post on the Piedra Lisa Trail. From my vantage point at the top, it appeared that there was snow to the north. I am not in-shape, so the entire trek (including stops for lunch and rests) took me about 3 hours. My legs are sore and my ankle a little tender, but I loved every minute of it! Priceless views of the Sandias! On Thu Feb 16 19:24:20 2012 Aj from Rio Rancho said:
Today I hiked the Piedra Lisa trail with my 6 yo son. It snowed pretty steady 2 days before and there was a lot of snow on the trail. It appeared we were the 2nd or 3rd set of prints in the snow. The average snow depth was approx 4inches. We had a lot of fun. We hiked up approx 2 hours or 1.66 miles before turning around. My son had a burst of energy and we pretty much ran (slid in snow) all the way down taking approx 30 mins. Today we saw a couple other hikers with their well behaved dogs and the only wildlife was limited to birds. I really look forward to trying the trail all the way up next time.