Gravel Rides in Santa Fe
If you haven’t heard, the cycling in Santa Fe is amazing. There are lots of traffic-free roads, beautiful singletrack and miles of gravel routes that will make you want to come back again and again. Personally we love gravel more than road riding, which is why we’re sponsoring the Gravelón rides for the Santa Fe Century. Here are some of our favorite places to get gravely:
Rowe Mesa
The venue for all of the Gravelón rides is on Rowe Mesa, a few miles from town and the Pecos Trail Inn (we’re actually the closest hotel/motel to the mesa.) Here you’ll find a mix of unimproved doubletrack, smooth dirt roads, cattle tracks and stunning views. The best place to start any ride here is just off of Ojo de la Vaca Road at the clearing on Forest Road 326. We’ve linked a couple routes right below, but you can easily customize your mileage and route.
Pacheco Canyon Road
This is a big ride, but covers an amazing variety of terrain. You’ll see the best of everything Santa Fe has to offer, from desert scrub to pinon/juniper forest to higher elevation pine/aspen forests. Take the ski area road back down for a fun, fast way back to town.
Santa Fe Rail Trail
This is a great route if you want to spin out the legs, pound out some flat miles or just acclimate yourself to the 7,000 elevation of Santa Fe. The rail trail generally has a nice crushed gravel surface, but you will have to cross some short, sandy washes – not a big deal if you take things slowly. It is pretty easy to ride to the Rail Trail from the Pecos Trail Inn.
Caja del Rio
The BLM and National Forest land to the west of town offer tons of gravel options with views of the Rio Grande, the Jemez Mountains to the west and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains above Santa Fe to the east. County Road 62 near the Marty Sanchez golf course is a good place to start, but as you can see from the map, there are a ton of ways you can go. The route to Chino Mesa delivers a beautiful view of the river.