Our route view from the west - The upper part of La Luz Trail traverses below the cliffs of the Crest rim.
The route viewed from the east - We didn't get started until 2 pm, but the temperature was perfect. It sure beat the heat down in town.
We hoped to get to the Del Agua Overlook on the left, but ran out of time and so we cut it short.
Route profile
We started below the Ellis trailhead and took Rocky Point Trail to the tram.
It's a great trail with some challenging sections.
Near the tram, we could hardly see across Albuquerque due to the smoke from forest fires.
The views from this trail are awesome!
This is not a trail for those intimidated by exposure.
We will traverse to the notch on the left side of this photo.
I couldn't help but remember how this looked when I skied it a few years back.
We could hardly see the Manzano Mountains.
This is a great trail.
South Peak in the center. I was there a couple weeks ago.
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The Kiwanis Cabin is on topr of the high point.
A little cave if you needed shelter from a storm.
There is a trail on top of the Crest, too.
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I don't know this one yet. I'll have to look it up.
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180 degree view
Oh yea
There was so much smoke, we couldn't even see LaDrone Peak.
At the top of the stairs
Same place
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Climibing up to the Crest House
This is another new one for me.
We took the top part of Switchback trail out to the switchback on the highway and the went up to the Crest Trail and headed north. We had planned to go out to the Del Agua overlook, but where running out of time. We bushwacked down to Survey Trail. This was the wrong place to do it. Most was like this and worse.
After getting through the deadfall, we headed south on Survey Trail, then used the ski trails to Ellis trailhead.
We crossed the Crest Road to Ellis and followed it back to our start. The hike was ~ 6 1/2 miles with great views and lots of variety.
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