Contribute  Loading...
Children Loading...
Geography Parents Loading... Routes
| | 
| Page Type: Route Location: New Mexico, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 35.21180°N / 106.449°W Route Type: Hiking Time Required: Most of a day Difficulty: Walk-up
| Route Quality: | | | | Loading...
| Page By: FortMental Created/Edited: Jan 8, 2003 / Nov 19, 2011 Object ID: 157566 Hits: 17478 Loading... Page Score: 90.26% - 48 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Overview
Untitled Document
For those unfamiliar with the mountains of Albuquerque, the La Luz is a very scenic trail that climbs from the Sandia Mountain foothills to the Sandia Crest some 3,800 feet above. Though not technically difficult, at nearly 8 miles in length, hiking it car-to-car will fill most of a day. What it lacks in difficulty, however, it makes up for in scenery and interest. If you find yourself in Albuquerque with time to spare, the La Luz Trail will be a great introduction to the mountains of the high desert; if nothing else, consider riding the Sandia Peak Tram up to the top, and hiking back down via the La Luz Trail (and the Tramway Trail).
For those familiar with the Sandias, the various side trails, nooks, and crannies of the La Luz will surprise and delight the most jaded explorer. For a more “robust” outing, consider hiking/skiing the La Luz in the dead of winter where tough conditions and startling exposure can turn this easy hike into a surprisingly difficult mountaineering objective.
Originally established by miners that worked the mine near the crest, the La Luz was reconfigured into its current form by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930s. The trail consists of roughly 3 parts: a) the lower part which is generally hot, dry, and scrubby, b) the middle part which goes through the towering fins and forbidding walls, and c) the upper part which is much cooler, greener, and shaded. Each part has its charms and it's own distinct character. No other New Mexico trail offers this variety!
Getting There
To The Foothills Trailhead- There are two ways to get to the lower (foothills) trailhead from downtown Albuquerque, or the Airport: 1) Take I25 North to Exit at Tramway Blvd. East (exit #234). Continue east on Tramway Blvd. 4 miles on a long uphill past the Sandia Casino, to Forest Service Road 333. Take this rough uphill road to the Juan Tabo Picnic Ground. 2) Take I-40 East, uphill, to Exit 167, Tramway Blvd North. Follow Tramway Blvd. about 8 miles through many lights to the four-way stop at the County Line Restaurant (if you want to take the tram to the summit, turn right, here). Continue north on Tramway Blvd. another mile, or so, to a right onto Forest Service road 333 and Juan Tabo Picnic Ground.
To The Crest, or Summit Trailhead- There are also two ways to get to the La Luz from the Crest Spur Trailhead: 1) Paved Road- Take I40 east to NM 14 north (Tijeras, exit #175). Bear left toward Cedar Crest. Continue to follow NM 14 north approximately 6 miles to the intersection with NM 536. A large brown sign on the left side of the road points to crest highway. Turn left and continue approximately 14 miles to the parking lot at the top of the Sandia Crest near the TV and radio towers. 2) Unpaved Back Road- This dirt road accesses several picnic grounds within Las Huertas Canyon, on the back side of Sandia Peak, and is entirely accessible via normal passenger car. Drive slowly as weekends can see a bit of traffic, especially on hot days. Take I25 north to US 550/NM 165 in Bernalillo, exit #242. Turn east (right) on NM 165, uphill for 9 miles, through Placitas (watch for cops!). The blacktop ends several miles beyond. Stay on the gravel road, driving slowly around the switchbacks, and over rocks until you get to pavement again at the picnic grounds and the intersection with NM 536. Turn right and continue uphill to the parking lot and gift shack at the top. Again, pay the fee or you’ll be ticketed.
|
The Google Earth Map below is a neat way of previewing the trail (in orange). Simply navigate by double-clicking anywhere to zoom in, or using the navigation controls at right. If you're seeing a 2-D Satellite map, it's because you don't have the GoogleEarth Plugin. GET IT NOW! It's cool!
|
Red Tape The La Luz Trail lies entirely within the Cibola National Forest Wilderness Boundaries. This is a fee area; so, expect to be separated from $3 at either lower or upper car-parks. The fee stations are aggressively manned and you will likely be ticketed if you don’t pay.
Trail Closures- Dry conditions and subsequent risk of fires during summer months routinely close The La Luz Trail and most of the Sandia Mountains to hiker access. Oddly enough, both the Tram and the road to the summit will remain open during fire closures; go figure. If visiting the area during the summer call the ranger station in advance for area closures.
Camping- There’s no car-camping anywhere in the Sandia Mountains, including the trailheads. However, you can park at a trailhead, wander some way into the sticks and spend the night. Expect to have your car locked inside the car park for the night, but you won’t be ticketed, unless you haven’t paid the daily fee.
Other Regulations- Cooperate and Pack Your Trash, Observe Fire Rules, Carry Matches, Do Not Travel Alone, Do Not Wear High Heels, Wear Something Bright, Do Not Throw or Roll Rocks, Do Not Waste Energy, Supervise All Children, Carry One Meal Per Person, Carry a First Aid Kit, Do Not Cut Across Switchbacks, Watch the Weather, Do Not Take a Horse, Donkey or Mule, or Llama, Watch for Falling Trees...They Will Kill You.
Untitled Document
When to Hike
Untitled Document
 |
Spring Conditions- Late February to Mid April: Generally warm on the lower section, cooling higher up and downright cold in the shadows of the taller rock sections. Snow will cover many parts of the trail beyond the Thumb. Snow covered sections are likelier to be boot-packed later into Spring. Cactuses will be in bloom through March in April… they are very pretty. It can snow anytime during this period.
Summer Conditions- Late April to Early July: Lower sections will be very hot, very sunny, and very brown. Noisome flies will accompany you on the lower sections of trail in May but will disappear higher up. Isolated sections of the trail may still have packed snow, other sections will be very wet and muddy. July may be the start of the monsoon season. |
 |
 |
Monsoon Conditions- July to Early September: Like the Rocky Mountains to the North, the Sandias get regular afternoon thunderstorms, lightning, spotty pounding rains, and occasional gravel-sized hail. The lower sections of trail are very exposed to the elements whereas the upper sections may provide some shelter. The weather during this season is generally unstable, hot and humid, but also awesome to watch and experience. Watch for the La Luz run in August.
Fall Conditions- September to Early November: Flowers in bloom, aspens and oaks changing colors, cool and sunny weather, dry trails, this is generally the favored time to be on the La Luz, and many Albuquerqueans know this. Expect crowded weekends on the lower sections of the La Luz. |
 |
 |
Winter Conditions- November to February: Generally mellow conditions on the lower sections of trail will give way to deep, impassable snow higher up. The character of this trail changes dramatically during the winter months, particularly on the upper sections where deeply drifted snow spills over short cliffs. The talus switchbacks may be completely hidden under windslab and ice. Crampons, ice axe, even skis will get you up. |
|
The La Luz Run
| For the last 45 years, the La Luz Run has been held every August. 400 runners are chosen by lottery and given the privilege of suffering on one of America's most grueling trail races. So that runners are not massed along the narrow trail, the race begins near Tramway Road, at the bottom of the paved road, well below the trailhead. The steep (and seemingly endless) road thins the pack into a neat line by the time the trailhead is reached. Front runners routinely run the 7.2 miles of trail to the crest in under one hour. In 2008, 42 year old race winner Simon Gutierrez completed the La Luz run, from Tramway Road, in about 1 hour, 22 minutes. SP'er Liba Hardekopf Pictures of Her 2006 La Luz Run... taken while running (!) |
Rock Climbs Along the La Luz TrailThe La Luz Trail also serves as a well-worn approach to a high concentration of rock climbs. Depending on which way the ethical wind (or the heat) is blowing, you can get to these routes from either the lower trailhead, or by driving to the crest and walking down from the upper car-park. There are a multitude of possibilities within view of the La Luz Trail; listed below, at right, are only a few of the established formations from lowest to highest in elevation. (Move cursor over image for details).
Untitled Document
 |
The Pulpit: A half dozen 4-5 pitch routes, from 5.2 to 5.10
The Thumb: The classic moderate, the Northwest Ridge, about 1,500 ft. with a couple of 5.5 moves. Several excellent moderates lie on both the east and west faces of this fin-like formation.
Yataghan: Several 6 pitch routes from 5.7 to 5.10 are found on the southern end of this formation.
The Frog and Chaos Crag: A few 4 pitch climbs from 5.7 to 5.10
Mexican Breakfast: Contains several difficult 2 pitch testpieces.
The Fin: The overhung face provides several difficult routes
Torreon: Towering over the Mexican Breakfast, the West face contains many long, difficult lines from hard 5.10 to 5.12.
Rat’s Rock: Several 3-4 pitch moderates
Estrellita: A small formation that contains several classic moderate single pitch routes
|
The Old La Luz TrailLa Cueva Canyon is the most obvious and direct weakness through which a path from the foothills to Sandia Crest can be traced. It’s likely that the Old La Luz Trail followed old game trails and ancient footpaths to (or from!) the top. Parts of the Old La Luz Trail may also be remnants of the mining trail that was used to bring ore down from the La Luz Mine. Though primitive and unmaintained, the Old La Luz avoids the endless switchbacks on the lower part of the La Luz and is, along many parts, much more scenic. It is, however, more exposed to dangerous weather. Watch the kids and make sure you know where the normal La Luz is in case you must get back to it.
There are several junctions along the La Luz Trail from which you can easily get onto sections of the Old La Luz Trail. To get to the lower part of the Old La Luz Trail, walk along the normal La Luz for 0.9 mile until the junction with the Tramway Trail. You can see Tramway Trail contouring along the hillside on the other side of the drainage; take this trail to the ridge and find the old La Luz as it cuts East and steeply up the ridge. You’ll eventually re-connect with the normal La Luz just past the La Luz switchbacks. Just past this junction, one of the Old La Luz Trails ascends Chimney Canyon, the other goes straight up La Cueva Canyon and contours along the lower limestone past the La Luz Mine.
The Chimney Canyon variant requires some bushwhacking, route finding, and in winter, major post-holing. The suffering begins in the vegetated drainage where the normal La Luz Trail crosses an intermittent stream just before The Thumb. Bash your way through dead-fall and head straight up; you’ll soon be rewarded with the amazing Chimney. Some route finding under and just to the north of The Chimney will require a major scramble to find the exit. Head up the narrow couloir until past some thinly wooded areas. Look for climbers trails that head up to the radio towers and the crest. Chimney Canyon is loaded with stingle nettle. Wear shorts and you’ll be guaranteed a night full of hallucination-inducing pain.
Geology on the La Luz Trail Except for one notable exception, the geology found along the La Luz Trail is not as interesting as that found at the north or south ends of the Sandia Mountains. The Sandia Granite is pretty much the only rock encountered in 3,300 feet of elevation change. Many minor faults can be found in the outcrops along the lower trail.
Weathering
Just past the lower trailhead are many examples of corestone weathering in a semi-arid environment: dark minerals weather into highly expanding clays forcing the light-colored crystals to "pop off", most notably at sharp edges first. Hence, the well rounded appearance of many of these rocks. The towers, fins, and detached blocks of the upper canyon are the result of jointing and faulting in the Sandia Granite. Stresses originally created when the Sandia Granite solidified some 1.4 billion years ago accumulated over time as the granite was uplifted and/or distorted by compression and extension. Note that the joints (Western/Eastern cliff faces) align well with compression from the West during building of the Rocky Mountains during the Paleozoic. These same cliff faces also align well with extension created during the Rio Grande Rifting of the Late Cenozoic. Mount Whitney is another example of a massively jointed granite.
Orbicular Granite-Granite orbicules are quite rare in nature and only 19 locations are known to exist in the US. There are two orbicular granite locations in the Sandia Mountains: one of which is located just off of the La Luz Trail, the other near Tijeras Canyon at the South end of the range. These orbicules are igneous in origin and are about 1.4 billion years old. They consist of cores of monzonite-syendiorite, gneiss, greenstone, or even single crystals of plagioclase or microcline enclosed by dark shells of biotite and plagioclase. These are photos of only a few of the many specimens on view at the Geology Museum in Northrop Hall at the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM.
|
To find the orbicular granite, first make sure winter snows have cleared from North-facing slopes. Contour North past the highest switchback (on the lower La Luz) on an obvious trail and continue around the ridge and the next drainage. Follow considerable loose scree vertically until you see faint orbicules in surrounding rock. Souvenir hunters and rock collectors may have decimated most of the best examples, however remnants can be seen if you look hard. Stunning specimens can be seen at the Geology Museum of Norton Hall, on the University of New Mexico campus, and is well worth a visit.
The La Luz Mine
After a promising vein of lead and silver-bearing ore was discovered in 1887, miners hammered a 15’ long tunnel into the Sandia granite such that the vein could be safely intersected and mined. Before long, the vein was mined out and the tunnel abandoned. 20 years passed before Colonel Bernard Ruppe founded the La Luz Mining, Smelting, and Development Company and started mining the location anew. Instead of re-working the old find, however, a tunnel was hacked (into the likely seam) from a lower elevation almost 300 feet to the southwest. It was hoped that ore could be extracted from this seam as it was followed up to the original opening. Other than some fluorite and brown calcite, almost nothing worthwhile was discovered from these new workings and La Cueva Canyon was spared any more mining activity. Maxie Anderson, as of 1975, owns mineral rights to the La Luz Mine.
At 10,000 feet, the La Luz Mine may have once been the highest mine in New Mexico. Located at the head of La Cueva Canyon, the original mine entrance is 50 feet below the La Luz Trail, right on the original mining trail. It was known as the Ruppe Mine before the La Luz Trail was built. The Crest Road did not exist when the mine was worked; imagine hauling yourself straight up La Cueva Canyon to spend endless weeks with your pick-axe chipping at that granite!
Untitled Document
Guidebooks
Untitled Document
 |
Field Guide to the Sandia Mountains includes sections on ecology, including weather and fire, geology, flora (grasses, flowers, trees) and fauna (arthropods, reptiles and amphibians, birds, mammals), and recreational opportunities. Plant keys and fauna checklists add to the book’s features.
A labor of love conceived by the Sandia Ranger District and the New Mexico Friends of the Forest (now known as Friends of the Sandia Mountains), this book is a resource no visitor to the Sandias should be without. |
 |
Hiking Trails of the Sandia and Manzano Mountains: This is the third edition of this popular and definitive guide to the Sandia and Manzano Mountains outside of Albuquerque. As a former wilderness patrol for Cibola National Forest, Matthews's trail descriptions are anecdotal and full of first-hand information on plants and animals, history, geology, and management. |
 |
Hikers and Climbers Guide to The Sandia MountainsThere is much to commend in this daypack-size guide to the Sandias. . . . This book provides a valuable compendium of both the common and out-of-the-way trails . . . a pleasing refresher for many experiences in the Sandias . . . |
 |
Sandia Mountain Hiking GuideThis guide presents fifty-seven trails covering a total distance of about 175 miles and includes length of the trail, elevation gain, and degree of difficulty. The author, who has hiked each trail many times, gives directions to the trailhead and descriptions of trail terrain, scenic viewpoints, vegetation, and neighboring trails for making nice loop hikes. Also included are GPS readings to help high-tech hikers locate landmarks and points of interest via latitude and longitude information. The hiking trails of the Sandias are among the great recreational assets of life in north-central New Mexico, yet many hikers are familiar with only one particular trail, La Luz, which is one of the mountain's more challenging and crowded routes. |
 |
Sandia Rock: Towering over the high desert city of Albuquerque, the Sandia Mountains are arguably New Mexico's finest backcountry climbing area. With a wide spectrum of route difficulty and commitment levels, these mountains offer adventure for the beginner, as well as the seasoned veteran. |
 |
Sandia Mountains - GPS Powered Trail Map: 1:45,000 Scale Topographic Recreation Map. Features include detailed GPS trail Network, trail mileages, elevations and access points and many features not seen on other maps of the area. Also included are Special 1:25,000 insets of Ellena Gallegos Parks and Sandia Crest. Waterproof, Tear- Resistant Paper, unfolds to 13x19 Inches. |
 |
USGS Map Sandia Quadrangle. Click here for detail. |
Contributors
Untitled Document
dsnell originally wrote up the La Luz Trail page for SummitPost back in 2003. His original photos are attached to this page.
Liba Hardekopf provided photos of the La Luz Run and a shot of flowing water on the trail itself.
Baarb provided nice photos of the trail with snow as well as that nice panorama, above.
Skoch3 for use of the photo of the switchbacks below the thumb.
davebobk47 provided useful photos of The Thumb.
Feel free to attach your photos or other useful information to this page!
Images
|
|
Sandia Mountains
