Agua Piedra to Indian Lake
| A steep trail through a spruce-fir forest up to a small lake. Along the way, might see lots of wildflowers and get some nice views. |
| Hike data | Waypoints | Maps | Getting to the trailhead | About the hike | Plants along the trail | Comments |
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| Date: | 2013-09-07 |
| Time it took us: | 4:50. Moving time: 2:19 |
| Usage (people/hour): | 0.62. Only three people with three dogs. |
| Cleanliness: | 9. 3 small pieces of litter. |
| Waypoint | Type | Description |
| 19A TH | Trailhead | 19A trailhead at Agua Piedra CG |
| Map name | Cartographer | Year | Scale | Topo map? | Online access | Notes |
| Carson National Forest | US Forest Service | 2002 | 1:126720 | N | from Amazon (purchase) | Camino Real and Questa ranger districts and Valle Vidal Unit side of the map |
| Guide to Indian Country of Arizona Colorado New Mexico Utah | Automobile Club of Southern California | 1998 | 1:0 | N | from Amazon (purchase) | Good overview road map for northwest NM. No scale is given on the map. The corner coordinates are approximate. |
| Taos | BLM | 1994 | 1:100000 | Y | from Amazon (purchase) | |
| Wildernesses of New Mexico | US Forest Service | 1981 | 1:1000000 | N | No online copies. | Base map with national forests, wilderness areas and highways. |
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From Santa Fe, take US 84 to El Valle del Arroyo Seco (after Pojoaque,
and before Española). Take La Puebla road to the right, which is also
highway 88.
After 2.8 mi, turn onto NM 76 N, which is also Chimayo and Santa
Cruz roads.
After 25.9 mi, turn right on NM 75 E.
After 6.9 miles, turn right on NM 518 S.
In this leg, you will pass Sipapu Ski area.
After another 6.9 mi from the 75/518 junction, turn right on forest road 708.
The trailhead is on the right, beside a corral. The Agua Piedra
campground is just past the trailhead.
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 | The trail climbs away from the trailhead. Get used to climbing, as you
will be doing plenty on this trail.
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Keep your eyes open as you hike. We saw this small mushroom along the
trail.
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 | After about 0.25 mi (0.44km) you comne to this junction (GPS: 19AX19C).
Turn left and go uphill.
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Right after the turn, you hike through a small meadow. Depending on
the recent weather, you might see lots of wildflowers. A bit over 100
yards/meters from where you turned, you encounter this gate. Fallen trees
have removed the usefulness of the fence, which probably explains why
the gate was open when we went through.
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 | The trail climbs through the forest. It varies from rocky to mostly
dirt. You will make several switchbacks as you go up the side of the
canyon.
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As you get up the canyon wall, you will see nice views through the
trees to your right. When you are done climbing, the trail opens into a
meadow. In this picture of the meadow, the hikers are heading back down
the trail.
Again, if the weather has been good for the plants, you might find it
full of wildflowers.
|  |
 | Of note is that the trail fades to nothing in the meadow. Stay on the
left side of the meadow and look for the trail leaving the left side
down through some trees. There are a pair of cairns that help you know
where to go, but they are easy to miss. The second cairn is in this
photo.
In this photo, the lake is just over the ridge and slightly left; it is
in the valley you can see here.
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When we visited, the lake was small, even though it was just at the end
of a good monsoon season. We could see that the lake has sometimes been
much larger.
In any case, it made a nice lunch spot.
Return by the same route you took to get here.
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Plants we saw along the trail:
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