Canyons in Los Alamos

Here is a view of Pueblo Canyon looking south-southwest. Pueblo Canyon runs downhill from right to left. It intersects Acid canyon (above), which goes up toward the swimming pool and Walnut Canyon (below), which goes up toward the golf course (not shown).



You can see our neighborhood just to the left of the pool. There are a number of trails visible on the canyon "bench" on both sides of Pueblo Canyon. The trail I take from the pool to the bottom is the Ranch School Trail. It is very hard to see in this view, but it comes down the east slope of Acid Canyon and ends at the footbridge that crosses the bottom of Pueblo Canyon. This bridge was washed away in a flood on July 15, 2006. To find it, start at the clearing at bottom of Walnut Canyon Road, the wide white area near the bottom of the photo and look to the right a short distance. The trail I built last fall (not shown in this picture from Spring, 2006) starts at the clearing and runs to the left down Pueblo Canyon a short distance, then turns left to go up parallel to the road but on the other side of Walnut Canyon. It connects with Walnut Canyon Road just beyond the bottom of this view. The prominent U-shaped trail on the opposite side is a dirt road that starts at the Los Alamos Jewish Center on Canyon Road. The portion of this road that is horizontal in the picture is the remains of an old pipeline road. There used to be a high bridge called the Peggy Sue Bridge that continued the horizontal segment of road to the right across Acid Canyon. This year I plan to work on widening a trail off to the left down Pueblo Canyon. The trail is about 250 feet above the bottom of the canyon. The views are spectacular, but the present trail is too narrow and dangerous to be gawking at the views while walking.