Rails to Trails Conservancy features Santa Fe Trail in Winter Magazine

Aahh, this month’s Rails to Trails magazine brought back fond memories of my time spent pedaling my bike on the Santa Fe Rail Trail in Santa Fe, New Mexico.


As I wrote about in an earlier blog, I loved the ease with which I could ride the trail in Santa Fe, then ride the rail to Albuquerque. It brought the whole rail-trail experience full circle.

I hitched a ride from Boulder, CO to Santa Fe. Well I didn’t literally hitch a ride since it was my own car and my dad drove it, but…

Anyway, I spent the night in Santa Fe, then rode the Santa Fe Rail Trail the next day. It didn’t take me long to figure out that it wasn’t a typical rail trail. First, it resembled a dirt bike trail more than a typical flat rail trail. Second, it was less of a rail to trail than a rail beside trail since it ran beside an active railroad track the entire way.

I had a great time on the trail, but the experience that stuck out the most for me was loading my bike on the Rail Runner Express and riding smack-dab through Native American reservations to Albuquerque. It was as if the whole rail/trail experience came full circle. It started with the Santa Fe Railroad, then a bike trail was built, and now the two are connected with a trail beside a rail and a railroad trip to Albuquerque. Of course, then I flew home, but airplanes have no place in this particular circle of recreation story.

Permanent link to this article: https://trailsnet.com/2010/11/13/rails-to-trails-conservancy-features-santa-fe-trail-in-winter-magazine/

1 comments

    • MARYland on 11/14/2010 at
    • Reply

    Parts of the C & O trail are rail beside trail also. Most of the trail is very isolated, so it's a nice change of pace to ride beside the tracks for a while, and it's quite a thrill when the old locomotive goes by.

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