Crosby Mountains / Christmas in Datil, NM

Spending Christmas in Datil, NM | Hiking in the Crosby Mountains | December 2024

In order to break up the driving and avoid inconveniencing anyone over Christmas, we opted to find a place to plant from December 23-26. Since we were going to stay several days, we had some requirements for whatever campsite we chose: open sky for solar, decent cell reception, flat, preferably free, and close to some places that I could go around and hike. To make things more complicated, there was a winter storm coming through over Christmas that threatened to dump snow on the Northern latitudes and higher elevations, so wherever we stayed, we wanted it close enough to a paved road so that if the weather changed for the worse, we wouldn’t be in too much trouble.

This last reason was the primary cause for us leaving the Manzano Mountains – there were plenty of signs that clearly indicated that, if snow came, we were on our own until it melted. So after visiting the mission at Abo we continued West on US-60 down to Socorro. We made a brief check at the campground in Water Canyon where we had stayed in 2021, but there was no reception so we quickly opted out.

Further West on US-60 we passed through the VLA and the plains of San Augustin and some dispersed sites just off the road. But again, the reception was poor and we got bad vibes from the area. Even in Datil, the established BLM campground had poor reception. It wasn’t until we were West out of Datil that we found a spot off a forest road that met all of our conditions. It was a bit higher elevation than we would have liked, and we were in for some colder nights, but we were ready to stop and stay a while.

After setting up the van and getting everyone settled (Charlotte found the neck bones of a deer that kept her quite content for our stay here) I decided to go off on a hike to some geocaches. It wasn’t really my intention to hike all the way to a nearby peak…but it was also bound to happen at some point during our time here. I ended up following the ridge behind our campsite up and up. There were no trails, as I’m finding is typical of the more remote regions of New Mexico, but the country was a nice mix of open grass and Pinyon Pine – which I snacked on continuously.

I had some difficulty navigating around a barbed wire fence and ripped a small hole in my pants as a result, and then I fell and cracked the screen of my phone – but otherwise the hike was rather pleasant and uneventful. Along the plateau leading to the summit I scared up a coyote or similar. The coloring was very dark and definitely not typical.

I eventually found an unofficial trail of sorts marked by surveyors tape which helped some in navigating the final ridgeline and up to the summit. The peak is called East Sugarloaf Mountain, and while it didn’t have the full prominence I normally look for, it definitely made up for it with views. I could see clear across the Plains of San Augustin to the East and well to the North and South. To the West was the highest point of the Crosby Mountains, which does have the prominence I look for, and I put together a potential trip.

After finding the geocache at the top, I returned back to the camp by a very similar route, but managed to avoid my troublesome barbed wire. An AllTrails recording can be found here.

The next day, I made good on my plan and set off to reach the high point of the Crosby Mountains. I knew this wouldn’t be nearly as scenic as Sugarloaf had been because the summit looked tree covered and very flat, but I was hopeful for a good hike.

And that was rather optimistic. This peak does not see a lot of visitors, and the few trail reports I was able to put together all assumed you could drive a high clearance/4WD vehicle to near the base of the peak. I could not do any of that and was essentially making it up as I went based on topographic maps and what I had seen the night before.

I started by following the forest road we were on up to a saddle between two ridges. One lead back up to Sugarloaf where I had been the night before, the other lead up towards Crosby. After a bit of bushwhacking I made it onto the ridge which was substantially easier walking, but the ridge also had lots of bumps and hills that I tried my best to avoid – no need for any extra elevation gain. Fortunately for me, I found an old 4×4 trail that kept me clear from both the brush and the hills.

But this trail was not on any of my maps, and it soon started going away from where I wanted. So I ditched it and again traversed cross country towards the final saddle below the summit plateau. I ended up losing a lot of elevation here, but as I was coming down I noticed…a road? There was clearly a well established 4×4 path along the opposite slope leading up. Maybe even to the top!

This 4×4 trail was also not on any of my maps, but I was excited all the same to follow it. The grade was easy and I felt like I was making good progress towards the peak. It also looked like it lead down off the mountain towards some forest roads that were on my maps – and that made me hopeful that I wouldn’t have to bushwhack back the same way I came.

The road/trail looped around to the North East side of the plateau and then noticeably started to disappear, it definitely wasn’t going to make it to the top. I picked my ridge and pushed up through the trees and rocks until I reached the top of the plateau. But even from here there was another half mile through sporadic forest up to the highest point.

I was bushed by this point, and not being able to see the end goal really made the last half mile drag on. I also knew that I wouldn’t have a view, which just added insult to injury. But I’m not one to quit when I’m so close and I made it, found the summit cairn and signed the log. Someone else had visited this year, but before him, the summit had been vacant since 2016!

As I rested I took stock of my situation. I wasn’t looking forward to traversing the plateau back to where I had scrambled up, nor following the ridgeline back down to the main road. But I was pretty sure that the road I had followed towards the end lead all the way back to camp – downhill almost the entire way. That was a good decision. The bad decision was how to get back down to the road. I ended up justifying in my mind that the 4×4 trail somehow contoured around all the way to below where I was – even though I had no evidence to suggest that was the case.

Just below the summit was a nice meadow that sloped down towards my imaginary road. I followed it and immediately got mired in blowdowns, dense forest, and loose rock. I should have climbed back out and traversed the plateau, but; in for a penny, in for a pound. I ended up contouring my way around the North slope of the plateau all the way back to where the road had petered out. It was never overtly dangerous, but it also was never enjoyable or fun.

Fortunately, once I was on the road, I could stay on the road. I ended up being very correct that my little road led all the way back to camp. It was definitely longer, and there’s no way any but an OHV or experienced 4WD driver could make it. But foot travel on roads is easy.

I ended up passing a local in an OHV with his dogs and we talked a bit. He wanted to know if I had seen any wildlife, which I found myself surprised to say emphatically no. I had just bushwhacked and traversed 10+ miles of remote New Mexican mountains and I had seen a total of 1 rabbit. A bit odd if you ask me.

All in all, I ended up hiking just under 14 miles total. You can see an AllTrails Recording here.

After that adventure, we stayed put and I refrained from hiking on Christmas Day. We caught up on work and otherwise relaxed for the day and did our best to stay warm. We got some ‘dip-n-dots’ type snow on and off, but nothing accumulated. Charlotte loved her deer bones and we had a nice van-life Christmas all by ourselves.