Rim Vista trail
| At the top of this trail, you are on the rim of the Valle del Rio Chama. You get amazing views of the valley, the Ghost Ranch area with its colorful geologic formations, Abiquiu Lake, the Jemez, and the Sangre de Cristo mountains. When it comes to views, this trail is probably one of the best in the state, and this is really saying something. |
| Hike data | Waypoints | Maps | Getting to the trailhead | About the hike | Plants along the trail | Comments |
|
| Date: | 2004-07-04 |
| Time it took us: | 5:15 05:15. We were slower than normal; if you spend no time looking, you could probably finish in a little over two hours. |
| Usage (people/hour): | 0.19 On a holiday weekend, we saw only one other hiker. |
| Cleanliness: | 10 |
| Waypoint | Type | Description |
| RIMVISTATH | Trailhead | Rim Vista trailhead |
| Map name | Cartographer | Year | Scale | Topo map? | Online access | Notes |
| Carson National Forest | US Forest Service | 2002 | 1:126720 | N | From the National Forest Store (purchase) | Canjilon-El Rito and Tres Piedras ranger districts 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. |
| Santa Fe National Forest | US Forest Service | 2004 | 1:126720 | N | From the National Forest Store (purchase) | West half |
| Wildernesses of New Mexico | US Forest Service | 1981 | 1:1000000 | N | No online copies. | Base map with national forests, wilderness areas and highways. |
From Española, take US 84 north through Abiquiu. You will pass
the turnoff for NM 96 (Abiquiu Lake), and Ghost Ranch. 2.4 miles after
the Ghost Ranch turnoff, you should see the turnoff on your left for
forest road (FR) 151 (a sign indicates Rio Chama as well as the forest road
number). Take FR 151 which starts as asphalt, but quickly turns to
dirt. After about 0.7 mi, you see a road to the right, which had a
small sign indicating trail 15 is to the right. Take this road. If you
have a low clearance vehicle, you may want to park here. At about 0.2 mi
the road forks. The more heavily traveled road to the right is the one
you want. The road dead-ends about 0.1 mile further; this is the
trailhead.
Note that on US 84, the Echo Ampitheater day use area is about 1.5 miles
north of the turnoff to forest road 151.
In the photo, the trail takes off to the left.
|  |
 | The trail is easy to follow. From the trailhead, you head across a small wash, and then up the hill on the other side. The trail climbs gently throughout the hike. The mesa top you can see in the distance is your destination. The sign at the trailhead says 2.3 miles. However, my GPS log shows that it is closer to 2.7 miles (one way). |
When you start the hike, you can see the brightly-colored banding in the
rocks across the highway and also on nearby cliffs. You are walking up
these bands. Watch for the varied hues of the soil, here red and a
light blue-white. Other places it is yellow or orange.
|  |
 | Also watch for the brilliant red rocks in amongst the other rocks.
|
Often on trails, the really good views come only at the end, when you
have hiked for miles. On this trail, they are available from the
beginning.
Later,
you will be able to see the whole Rio Chama valley, all the way to the
Sangre de Cristo mountains.
|  |
 | You get to see interesting geologic formations, such as these. No, I am
not a geologic formation. Look behind me.
|
Starting at about 0.5 miles into the hike, you start to see trail
markers such as this one. They are not really needed, as the trail is
easy enough to follow.
|  |
 | The drought has killed many of the trees which hold the trail markers.
As time goes on, more will end up like this one across the trail. Other
trail markers are falling apart due to weathering; you may see a
scattering of blue plastic at the base of a tree.
|
Along this trail, we saw more wildlife than we had expected, especially
due to the time of day. This lizard was nice enough to pose for me. We
also saw a couple of rabbits, one of which did not think we saw it
(although it was keeping a close eye on us, just in case).
|  |
 | Unfortunately due to the drought, many of the Piñons are dying or
dead. However, the Mountain Mahogany is still doing well. You can
recognize it by the curly, feathery seeds.
|
Along parts of the trail are cryptobiotic crust. This crust
is a collection of microbes that are helping prevent erosion.
Stepping on the crust can kill it, allowing erosion to occur.
|  |
 | This ant hill with grass and opuntia was expecially nice.
|
In spite of the drought, some flowers still have enough water to bloom,
such as this Wyoming paintbrush (Castilleja
linariifolia).
|  |
 | As you begin to climb the steeper part of the cliff (the trail is not
much steeper though), you begin to get views to the southeast. If it
was not for the fires burning in Arizona reducing visibility, you would
clearly see the Sangre de Cristo mountains in the distance. Closer in,
you can see the Ghost Ranch area and Abiquiu reservoir.
|
When you are about 40 ft below the mesa top, the trail suddenly becomes steep up to the top. When you reach the top, you can see a sign. Note how you get to the sign, because the trail is indistinct for returning to this point. To add to the possible confusion, a pseudo-trail heads along the rim top. Near the sign, this is the view you get. Well, you probably will not see Diana standing there, but the rest you should see. The view between the two trees is the one at the very top of this page. Return via the route you took to get here. Be careful on the steep part. |  |
 | If you time it so that you are heading down as the sun gets lower, the
quality of the light improves.
|
Plants we saw along the trail:
Reader comments about this hike:
Add your comments about the Rim Vista trail hike.
|
Copyright © 1997-2009 Kenneth Ingham Consulting, LLC.
For details about the copyright, see the full Copyright statement.
Unhappy? Thinking of suing us? Read this disclaimer.
You can read our privacy statement.
Abiquiu Reservoir is not a lake, it is a reservoir. reservoir: A natural or artificial pond or lake used for the storage and regulation of water. lake: A large inland body of fresh water or salt water. Abiquiu Reservoir contains water for future use for Albuquerque. The water in the reservoir wasis from rerouted rivers and streams that were once flowing on northern NM and Southern CO Native American lands. After much struggle and a few deaths due to construction accidents, the water ends up where it is in the reservoir, so that the folks in Albuquerque will have water when their aquifer runs out. In this case, calling a reservoir a reservoir might be prudent. On Sun Mar 19 17:58:33 2006 Anonymous from los angeles, california said:
I hiked this trail on March 18, 2006---a cold and blustery day, with a bit of rain and sleet. Despite the weather, and the poor visibility, it was a wonderful hike. I enjoyed it greatly, and would love to know more about the local geology, as the rocks and formations along the way were beautiful and very interesting. I only saw one person on this trip, heard two airplanes, and otherwise was alone. I also wanted to comment that I found the directions and information about this hike on your site to be very informative and helpful. In fact, I found the information about this hike to be better than similar information on hikes in northern New Mexico that I've gotten from the books in my collection! On Wed Apr 5 21:51:23 2006 Dave, Stu, Chloe, Jake from Albuquerque said:
Hiked the last Sunday in March 2006, a beautiful 65 degree day. As with San Lorenzo Canyon, never could have found this place without your directions. There was noone else here when we hiked, so Chloe and Jake got to be off their leashes. The views are incredible. Your description that this is one of the most beautiful hikes around is true. It is a nice mixture of dry and hilly at the beginning, nice flat forest hike in the middle, and spectacular rim trail on the side of a mountain near the top. The hike was just about perfect in length for me...3.5 hours up and down. There are patches of dead trees in the middle, with small bushes sprouting back to life at their roots. There were small patches of snow in the higher, shaded areas. The mountains in the distance had snow on the top. There were some interesting old cans and some strange holes were dug along side the trail near the beginning...one looked like it was dug for a coffin. On Fri Apr 6 09:57:27 2007 Daniel Schwartz from Fresno, CA said:
Just hiked it yesterday (4/5/07) at about 1:30 p.m. We had the entire area to ourselves throughout the hike. Spectacular scenery and views as promised. A lot of dead or dying trees which is too bad. Several fallen trees on trail require you to walk around them and you might get off-track or even lost, especially on the way down. So beware. Not too much wildlife except for the ants and a few lizards, although lots of deer scat probably from earlier in the season. Our first hike in NM, what a great way to start. On Wed Jun 9 16:48:41 2010 Richard & Margo from San Francisco, California said:
June 9, 2010: We hiked the Rim Vista Trail today. Thank you for your detailed and inspiring descriptions. The hike was beautiful. There are rewarding views right from the beginning. The Pinions are starting to recover. A cool and wet late spring this year left us lots of wildflowers and cactus flowers still in bloom. Margo took many pictures. We are visiting from San Francisco, CA. We started approx 8:30 am. In the summer, I wouldn't start much later than that, unless you wait until late afternoon. At a pace for our modest fitness and the heat, it took us a little less than 4 hours to the mesa top sign and back. On Wed Jun 9 16:49:08 2010 Richard & Margo from San Francisco, California said:
June 9, 2010: We hiked the Rim Vista Trail today. Thank you for your detailed and inspiring descriptions. The hike was beautiful. There are rewarding views right from the beginning. The Pinions are starting to recover. A cool and wet late spring this year left us lots of wildflowers and cactus flowers still in bloom. Margo took many pictures. We are visiting from San Francisco, CA. We started approx 8:30 am. In the summer, I wouldn't start much later than that, unless you wait until late afternoon. At a pace for our modest fitness and the heat, it took us a little less than 4 hours to the mesa top sign and back.