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

Big Arsenic Trail

We drove up to Río Grande del Norte National Monument north of Taos, to hike the Big Arsenic Trail down to the Río Grande and back, 2.7 miles round trip with 800 ft loss/gain. This was a beautiful hike down the canyon to follow the river upstream and included some petroglyphs. We also saw a tarantula on the trail here. Views hiking down the Big Arsenic Trail towards the Río Grande

The petroglyphs

Continuing along the trail upriver

Continuing to hike upriver along the trail

We found a steep boot track down to the river's edge

We then returned downriver along the trail, stopping at the river's edge near the camp spot closest to heading back up out of the canyon

Tarantula on the trail, then views heading back up the canyon to the the trailhead