Iron Gate to the Rio Mora

A relatively flat trail with excellent views of the Valle del Rio Mora. In the fall, excellent colors await you.

Hike data:

Maps:

Online 1:100,000 from topozone.com Online 1:25,000 from topozone.com Online from terraserver-usa.com USGS Topo Quad 1:24,000 Elk Mountain USGS Topo Quad 1:100,000 Santa Fe USGS Topo Quad 1:250,000 Santa Fe Santa Fe National Forest Map, 1994 A map of the Pecos Wilderness exists, but I gave mine to a friend and have not yet replaced it.

Getting to the trailhead:

From I-25, take exit 299: Glorieta/Pecos. Follow the signs to Pecos. At the stop sign, turn left. A sign here indicates a left turn will take you to Cowles and Terrero. Follow the winding road through part of the town of Pecos and then through the Pecos River Valley. This road will take a little while to drive; don't be in a hurry. After the Terrero General Store, the road deteriorates some. You continue for several miles, then watch for a sign for Forest Road 233 and Iron Gate. Take this road. The sign says that this is a limited use road: not suitable for low-clearance vehicles. They are correct. I would not recommend taking a low-clearance car up this road. Follow the road about 5 miles to the Iron Gate campground. The trailhead is at the north end of the campground loop road.

The hike:

	You start out at the trailhead and head uphill. You are walking in amongst Aspen and Douglas Fir. After about 1/4 mile, you come to a junction and a sign indicating what you find if you go left or right. Take the left trail, (trail 249).
About a half a mile down the trail, you reach another junction, where 249 and 250 go different ways. Take the right trail (250). As we were walking the trail, a squirrel came down a tree and scolded me from not far away. Immediately after I took the picture, he ran back up the tree.
	The trail goes up and down, remaining at about the same elevation. After a bit of walking, you get your first view of the Mora Flats.
As you can see, we hiked this trail in the early fall. Richard Liska (sp?) stands in a particularly colorful area. A little ways after your view of the Mora Flats, the trail begins to descend.
	When you arrive on the flats, there is also a junction. A sign indicates that you can go straight and take trail 240 to Las Trampas or turn left and go on Rociada Trail 250. The river is ahead of you. We went a bit to the left and had a snack on the edge of it. This area would be a great area to backpack into and camp; we found several good campsites.
Return via the same route that you took to get to the rio. When we reached the junction of 249 and 262, we continued straight, taking 248 to the Iron Gate road. This route has some extra scenery, but you will need to hike back up the road to get to the campground.
	We got this view of Pecos Baldy near the end of the hike (near the Iron Gate campground).
Our friend, Michael Wester, called this view of aspens "a flea's-eye view of a dog".

Plants we saw along the trail:

• Alpine Juniper or Common Juniper or Spreading Juniper (Cupressaceae Juniperus communis)
• Alpine Clover (Fabaceae Trifolium dasyphyllum)
• Oak (Fagaceae Quercus)
• Ponderosa pine (Pinaceae Pinus ponderosa)
• Douglas fir (Pinaceae Pseudotsuga menziesii)
• Wild strawberry (Rosaceae Fragaria vesca ssp. americana)
• Cinquefoil (Rosaceae Potentilla)
• Wood's rose (Rosaceae Rosa woodsii)
• Thimbleberry (Rosaceae Rubus parviflorus)
• Aspen or Quaking Aspen (Salicaceae Populus tremuloides)

Animals we saw along the trail:

• Squirrel
• Chipmunk

Reader comments about this hike:

On Tue May 30 13:41:24 2006 Anonymous from Santa Fe, NM said:
Mora Flats is a glaciated valley. The distinctive U shape is unmistakable. At the down stream end is a glacial end moraine. More end moraines will be encountered if one hikes further up stream. It actually takes about an hour to go from Iron Gate to Mora Flats. distance is probably about three miles. Mountain lion live here, but they are rarely seen. Mule deer and elk can be seen various times of year. There are beaver in the valley and dams are evident.

On Sun Jul 13 20:47:58 2008 Shawn from Albuquerque, NM said:
The hike itself is beautiful. The views are beautiful. The river is amazing. The trail full of horse poop... not so beautiful. Man, there was tons of horse poop. We were constantly dodging horse poop! Was the hike worth it? Yes it was, but just be aware of the "land mines." :)

On Sat Jul 4 17:36:19 2009 Terri T from Albuquerque, NM said:
I did this hike to the Beatty's Flats today and yesterday. It was so fun and not very difficult, even with 40 lbs on my back! There were so many wild irises on the Hamilton Mesa section of the hike that if I had been there 3 weeks sooner when they would have mostly been in bloom, I think it would have been unbelievable. I also think the rough 4x4 road up to the campground was half the fun! There's no camping for a large area around Beatty's Flats, FYI, so we camped across the river and to the south a bit. But all in all, a gorgeous couple of days, and very untravelled, even on 4th of July weekend.

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