Ascent of Cerro Grande on 2015-05-31| Date: | Sunday, May 31, 2015 | | Ascent Type: | Successful Summit Attained | | Peak: | Cerro Grande | | Location: | USA-New Mexico | | Elevation: | 10160 ft / 3096 m |
Ascent Trip ReportArrived at trailhead at 955 a.m. Sixty degrees and mostly sunny. Best route from Santa Fe Hwy 284 to Bandelier Monument Exit. 35 miles down NM 4 to trailhead parking lot on right. Read as much as I could find on this hike beforehand. Not a lot out there. Most say 2,1 miles one way, I have it right at 2.3 one way. Generally a tougher hike than advertised. First half mile is fairly level in and out of pines and small meadows. Next .3 miles steeper but moderate grade then you enter first portion of hike where there is significant older fire damage - some old fire damage along almost all of this trail. Anyway at about 1.4 miles you hit a very nice meadow in a saddle. Up to this point, trail in good shape. From meadow the last .8 mile or so is pretty steep climb on a very circuitous route to summit through small boulder field with trail increasingly rougher. Last quarter mile above existing tree line- lot of fire damage near summit. Summit marked by large cairn. Great views in all directions. Did not linger at summit as black clouds had formed quickly and were moving in. Most of trip down in sprinkles with thunder in distance. Had couple of short bursts of small hail. Started pouring as soon as I opened car door. Saw six elk. Met very nice young couple from Los Alamos - only other people on mountain. Overall nice ascent for half day training hike. Would have loved to have seen this trail before fire damage. |
| Summary Total Data | | Total Elevation Gain: | 1200 ft / 365 m | | Round-Trip Distance: | 4.6 mi / 7.4 km | | Route: | Cerro Grande Trail | | Trailhead: | NM Hwy 4 trailhead 8960 ft / 2731 m | | Quality: | 5 (on a subjective 1-10 scale) | | Route Conditions: | Maintained Trail | | Weather: | Raining, Cool, Breezy, Partly Cloudy | | Ascent Statistics | | Time: | 1 Hours 58 Minutes | | Descent Statistics | | Time: | 1 Hours 15 Minutes |
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