Red Canyon Trail

Approach

From Albuquerque, go east on I-40 and take the Tijeras exit. Stay right when the off-ramp splits after a couple hundred feet. Go straight through the light onto Highway 337. Follow this road for about 35 miles until it hits NM-55 at a “T” intersection. Turn right and continue to the town of Manzano. Take the turn off towards the end of the town that has the sign pointing in the direction of Red Canyon Campground and Manzano State Park. Keep on the paved road for a few miles and take a right at the Red Canyon Campground sign. From here, go straight and follow the signs to the trailhead. A couple of great maps are the Manzano Mountains Wilderness map and the Cibola National Forest (Mountainair District) map.

Route Description

Elevation Gain: 2,000'
Distance: 2.5 miles

Take the trail form the parking lot for hikers at the campground to the fork between Spruce Spring Trail and Red Canyon Trail. Go left from here past another descriptive board with a map and trailhead marker. There are no tricks to this route while on the trail so just follow it to the intersection with the Crest Trail. The crossing has a sign indicating distances and directions for the trails, go beyond this sign to the ridge where you can see the Rio Grande Valley. Turn north here to climb the last 250' vertical feet to the summit over the rocky ridge. The summit is marked by a large pile of stones.

Essential Gear

Basic hiking gear should suffice on this route.

Miscellaneous Info

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