Golden Open Spaces: Los Duendes Loop and part of the Arroyo Seco Trail

We drove to Golden Open Spaces northeast of Albuquerque to the Los Duendes Trailhead and hiked the Los Duendes Loop and from the viewpoint partway down along the Arroyo Seco Trail, 6 miles with 400 ft of overall gain. Nice views, clear skies, interesting rocks in the arroyo and wildflowers! We had distant mountain views as we hiked the Los Duendes Loop Trail (counterclockwise) up on the juniper covered mesa.

some views as we hiked down and back along part of the Arroyo Seco Trail, then returning to the Los Duendes Loop and continuing to the trailhead

some of the wildflowers we saw today along the trail

Taos Valley Overlook Trails

We returned to the Río Grande del Norte National Monument, a section south of Taos called the Taos Valley Overlook Trails, we hiked part way along the Rift Valley and Klauser Trails for 5.5 miles and about 200 ft of overall gain.

We stayed up on the plateau above the Lower Taos Canyon and the Cañon dek Río Grande, some of the views along our hike

We also found some petroglyphs near on of the trails