Hiking Guadalupe Mountain / Rio Grande Del Norte

Hiking Guadalupe Mountain | Rio Grande Del Norte National Monument | New Mexico | October 2024

During our long weekend at Rio Grande del Norte, I was able to go for two different solo hikes. On our first full day here, I left Jess and Charlotte at the campground (with enough snacks and things to keep them entertained and comfortable) to drive back to the entrance road to the Guadalupe Mountain trailhead. My goal was to reach the summit of both of the mountains main peaks (North and South), though only the North summit has enough prominence to meet my goal. Technically, there isn’t any trail going to the summit proper, but there are plenty of 4×4 trails, non-summit trails, and open country, that I figured I could string together a route.

I ended up parking near where I would end my hike at the end of the Las Vistas de Questa trail, then walked up the road to the Guadalupe Mountain trail. This followed an old mining/forest road and was probably the easiest hiking of the day. The trail gradually climbed up to the ridge, was in the shade, and offered plenty of opportunity for foraging pinyon berries.

While checking in at the visitors center on our first day here, I overheard a local elementary teacher ask the ranger if there was anywhere that she could take her class to collect pinyon berries. This naturally piqued my interest and I asked the ranger what they were talking about. And so I was introduced to pinyon berries, or pine nuts, a traditional food of the indigenous people, the largest nut in the conifer/pine family, and a tasty trail treat. And they were everywhere. We would see people everywhere stooped over picking them off the ground. The whole week I would stop to collect the nuts off the ground or straight from the sticky cones. I’m always a fan of learning about wild foraging for food, and this is definitely a favorite.

Towards the top of the trail, I found my way to a very mediocre overlook of the Rio Grande gorge before I backtracked to the base of the South Peak. It was a short bushwhack to that summit which offered better views of the mountains to the East. From here at this peak, I needed to get down to the saddle between the North and South peaks. This was the brushiest part of my hike, and I just dead reckoned down a gulley through the trees until I made it out onto the plain between the peaks. Here the trees were a bit sparser and there was a good network of 4×4 trails that I could follow.

I then navigated North across the saddle to a wide open meadow below my final peak goal. I had a good view of my route from here, but even if I didn’t, it was more or less just go straight up. No false peaks or dead end ravines to get lost in. But it was steep and slow going without any real views along the way.

I eventually made the ridge west of the peak proper and then made a final push to the top. Fortunately, there was a break in the trees here also offering views to the East. But, I was also a bit disappointed that I wasn’t able to get a real unobstructed view of the Rio Grande Gorge or the collection of peaks to the West. Oh well, we also had pretty good views from our campsite, so I wasn’t really missing out.

I signed the summit register (this peak does not get a lot of visits) then retraced my way back down to the meadow. This makes peak #99 – only 201 more peaks to go for my goal! From the meadow I followed the 4×4 roads West until I met up with the Las Vistas de Questa trail which made a wide loop around the South peak. By this point, it was pretty warm out and so the hike dragged on for quite a while. But at least I had an established trail, so I mostly focused on just putting down miles.

Overall my route was about 10 miles round trip. I wouldn’t especially recommend it to anyone but die-hard peak baggers. But it also wasn’t especially difficult, just long. You can see a trail recording here.

The next day I decided to hike down into the canyon, which has a good network of trails that I figured I could string together fairly easily. More importantly, I could start and end right at our campsite without adding any additional miles.

I followed the Little Arsenic trail right at our campsite as it dropped down into the canyon. Along the way I noticed a herd of Bighorn Sheep just hanging out off the trail along the bench lands (probably the same herd who would later walk through our campsite). I also tried to get in contact with Jessica, because I was pretty sure I was right below her and the van, but she wasn’t near her phone at that point.

Closer to the Rio Grande I took the trail North. The colors of the river and the rocks were especially vibrant and I ended up climbing down to the river just to get a closer look. I happened to be near a protected pool and no one was around so I also decided to take a swim and wash off the sweat and dirt of the past week. It was definitely cold, but not glacial by any means.

I continued heading North on the trail passing by a couple natural springs and a group of anglers. The trail eventually returned up to the bench lands and then split with one fork going back up to the rim, and another going back down into the canyon towards another larger spring. It was warm and the hike up Guadalupe the day before had worn me out, so I opted to just go back to the rim. From the top, it was an easy walk along the bike trail back to camp.

Overall, the loop was around 4 miles. with just around 1000 feet of drop/gain from the rim to the river. You can see a partial trail recording here.