Overlooking the Obvious

Every now and then I have these moments where I notice something and think it's new. And then my wife tells me, no, actually, that's been there for years. That's how I'm starting to feel about Picacho and Atalaya Peaks. They are almost quite literally in my backyard, yet for some reason when I'm looking for vertical my eyes always drift upward towards the big peaks. But with those routes packed in snow and time being my most precious commodity I've been making a point to hit both of them recently.

Picacho (L) and Atalaya (R) Peaks as seen from the entrance to my
neighborhood. The trailheads are 2-3 miles away.

The Atalaya summit - at about 9100 ft and change - can be reached from both the north and the south. The northern route comes up from Picacho and, as I found out while trying to descend it last weekend, is quite treacherous due to packed snow and ice. Not recommended right now. The southern route however is more or less clear of snow. I prefer to follow the St John's Trail starting at the college before connecting with the Atalaya Trail. The route gently rises up through some arroyos and small canyons for a couple miles before the climbing begins in earnest. The trail winds up to the southern ridge, visible to the right of the peak in the above photo. This intermediate section of the climb offers some decent views to the south, but the real treat awaits at the summit.

The view towards Sandia from about halfway up

Of course you have to do some work to get up there. The hardest part of the climb is in my opinion the last third of a mile or so up to the ridge. I can run most of the climb up to this point but I invariably break into a hard power hike for the final push. Once the ridge is achieved the last portion up to the summit is quite runnable.

 The grind up to the ridgeline

Turning north for the final summit push

The clearest views from the summit are to the west toward the Jemez mountains. I'm sure one could find an unobstructed view of the Sangres as well but I have not yet taken the time to find such a view.

Looking west from the top, with Caballo Peak off in the distance

Tesuque Peak and Ski Santa Fe visible to the north through the trees

The descent down is steep and twisty and technical... and a lot of fun. The switchbacks just below the ridge can be a little tricky but otherwise one can pretty much just bomb the whole thing. The biggest challenge is dodging the day-hikers on the way up.

All said and done the round trip is about 7.8 miles and probably about 2000 feet of climbing (TH @ 7300, summit @ 9100, plus a few intermediate ups and downs). The route from the north starting at the Upper Canyon TH is about a mile or so shorter each way but has roughly the same amount of vertical.