South Crest Trail and La Luz Trail Loop

August 1, 2021

Ash spent the night at the sitter’s Saturday night, so Sunday, when I woke up bright and early, I decided I’d take an early morning hike in the Sandias.

I got ready, including packing up my trekking poles (it had been raining lately and thought the trail would be muddy and/or slick.) I walked out and was greeted to a nice, cool, dreary, overcast morning. I made my way to my car and as I got on the road, realized that the peak was not visible. It was completely shrouded in clouds. I was going to be hiking in fog.

I stopped for a couple bottles of Powerade and some trail mix and headed up Central onto old Route 66 and up highway 14 to Sandia Crest Road for the 14 mile drive up the incline to the crest.

The road is bendy, as most mountain roads are, but having driven it so much lately, I’ve gotten to know it and can make the drive at higher speeds than those that might not know the mountain. This nearly came as a detriment on this drive though as I was speeding around one corner and heading toward another, there was a car stopped just off the side of the road just before the next curve. I saw brake lights so they weren’t parked there, and they were kind of hanging on to the road, not completely off of it. I slowed as I approached and realized, they were stopped to take in this sight:

After snapping a picture of my own, I continued on the drive up the hill.

When I arrived, the park rangers were there collecting the envelopes from the collection bin. I had a friendly chat with the older man about the Dodgers (as I was unsurprisingly wearing my Dodgers hat). I paid my $3 fee and drove down to the lower parking lot to begin my trek.

Trail Stats

AllTrails lists this hike as a moderate 3.1 mile hike with a 692 foot elevation gain. These are not the numbers I put up though. Read on to find out why.

South Crest Trail

As I got out, put on my pack and started assembling my trekking poles, I realized that the lower flip lock on one of them is missing. Ah well. I threw the poles back into the car and went on about my way.

I set off into the white of the clouds and didn’t get very far before coming across a nice, deep puddle that spanned the entire width of the trail.

I ventured a guess that f I’d tried going through this puddle, it would have been ankle deep. Rather than making a 3 mile hike in wet boots and socks, I hopped the guardrail on the right and passed the puddles on the cliff ledge. Normally I’d have an issue with this but having a guardrail within reach set my mind at ease.

I need you to remember this discomfort.

I got to the point where the puddles dried up so I got back over onto the proper trail to continue on my way.

The first part of this hike runs the same path as my hike to Kiwanis Cabin back in June so it was all very familiar to me. So familiar, in fact, that before I knew it, I was at the cabin.

Wait.

The trail isn’t supposed to bring me to the cabin. What happened? I pulled up AllTrails on my phone only to find that I’d gone off trail again.

Exasperated, I turned on the sound and continued on my way.

As I trekked through the clouds on my way to the turnaround point at Ten3, I was thinking about an interaction I’d had with my dad two days prior. In case I hadn’t mentioned it, I’m not on speaking terms with my parents but this was an unavoidable interaction. It was very brief, consisting of a grand total of six text messages over the course of less than fifteen minutes, but it left a burn mark on my brain. Dealing with my parents has always been a less-than-pleasant experience so the incident in February that left us not talking was more of a blessing than a curse.

And I was now reminded of that. All I could think about on my way to Ten3 were those six messages and trying to think of if there was any way it could have been avoided.

The Turnaround

By the time I reached the restaurant, I really had to use the restroom. I ran into the large stall and did what needed to be done, finally emerging about 20 minutes later.

The return trip had me hiking La Luz trail, rather than taking South Crest Trail back. Retracing my steps was certainly an option, but hey, variety is the spice of life, right?

I almost immediately regretted my decision. The majority of my trip on La Luz Trail was on a two foot wide path with a sheer cliff face up to my right, and a sheer cliff face down to my left. There was very little room for error on this trail. See, I am not particularly fond of heights, especially with little to no safety measures to keep me from plummeting hundreds of feet to my death. There were times where I’d have to turn sideways on the trail to squeeze past a tree or a rock, and was certain that the weight of my pack was going to pull me off the mountain, and there was certainly nothing for me to grab on to that would keep me from my doom.

This is it! It’s curtains for me!

After a few minutes on the trail, I briefly entertained the idea of turning back and just taking the South Crest Trail back but decided instead to tough it out. There are certainly worse things I want to do (at the moment, I couldn’t quite think of any of them), this is just the first step on my way to those bigger and badder things.

I plugged on. Worst case, Alan knew where I was so at least my body could be recovered.

After what seemed like an eternity, I reached Five Mile Junction which apparently is a waypoint on La Luz Trail. This spot was a much more wide open area than the narrow path I’d just traversed so I was able to unclench considerably.

From this point, I hopped on the Crest House Spur Trail for the remainder of the hike. This trail was still pretty narrow but the drop off on my left wasn’t nearly as steep. It felt much wider, but this leg of the hike was extremely steep, pretty consistently 20+% grade and hitting mid to upper thirties at some points. It took much longer to cover this portion of the trail as I had to stop to rest several times to catch my breath. It had been four weeks since I’d last hiked, and almost two months at anything over 10,000 feet.

Finally, I heard voices talking above me. I looked up and saw a couple of people on the patio of the Crest House café. I wasn’t far. I pushed through and finally emerged in the parking lot where my blue beauty was, my chariot, waiting to carry home my beaten and broken body.

OK, maybe I’m being a little over dramatic…

I unlocked the car, threw my pack into the back seat, got in and reflected on what I’d just done.

My little detour to the Kiwanis Cabin added over half a mile and 100 feet of elevation gain to my hike. I finished the trail at 3.7 miles (instead of 3.1) and 791 feet of gain (instead of 692) which is my new personal best.

Indeed, this hike was challenging in a physical sense, but it was also a challenge emotionally. I really have to change my thought process to be able to get through those narrow sections on the La Luz trail, and the anxiety I felt only fueled the physical exertion. My heart rate and breathing were increased further than they already should have been.

But most importantly, being so focused on the trail (or, more specifically, not falling off of it) allowed me to not focus on the interaction with my dad. I was only in the here and now (or… the there and then… I guess…?)

That was a new turning point for me. I need to be present and aware of where I am and what I’m doing at any given moment, and not be clouded by what went wrong in the past nor worry about the future. Be happy with what I have instead of wishing for what I don’t have. If it’s meant to be, it will happen. If not, I just move forward.

FOOD!

Yeah, I was hungry. I swung through the lower lot and parked up on the upper lot, closer to the Crest House. I went into the café and was greeted by a, like, 12 year old manning the cash register. There was a, like, 14 year old running the grill. And not an adult in sight. I asked what they were serving and was shown the menu they were still in the process of writing up.

Oh, yeah, I guess it’s still pretty early, isn’t it? It was barely 11:00 by the time I was ready for lunch.

I ordered a green chile bacon cheeseburger, bag of chips and a can of root beer. I stood and watched this 14 year old kid working the flat top like any other short order cook I’d seen. Using steam under a bowl to quickly melt the cheese on my burger patty, toasting my buns on the griddle… it was like he’d been doing it his whole life.

He gave me a paper plate with my burger and all the fixins. I put ketchup and mustard on the burger and took the food out to the patio under which I’d walked just minutes before.

It certainly wasn’t the best burger I’d ever eaten, but I’d certainly had worse. It was extremely satisfying though. Not in that it filled my stomach (which it did) but in that it was a reward well earned for what I’d just put myself through.

In Closing

The South Crest Trail is a trail I’ve taken a few times now, and I absolutely do not have a problem with it. It’s a relatively easy trail with little danger, and is very easily accessible.

The La Luz trail is terrifying, dangerous and insanely difficult for me, with extremely steep sections that taxed me to my limits. I hated it and I can’t wait to do it again.

All told, it was a very cleansing hike for me, physically and emotionally. It was definitely something I needed, and this quote I found perfectly sums up how I felt after hiking it: