Blue Range Wilderness along the New Mexico/Arizona border is a gem. It’s high altitude with giant ponderosa pines. While I hiked out along Pueblo Creek, Derek rode up to the lookout on Saddle Mountain.
My whole day can be described as beautiful isolated mountain scenery. I didn’t come across any other hikers the whole day. The trail doesn’t have a very exciting name. It’s WS Mountain Trail #41 and in places I’ve seen it called Franz Spring Trail. Either way, it follows along Pueblo Creek for as far as you want to go really. Looking at a map, you could be out there for days hiking remote trails. The trail crosses the creek at least a dozen times but the water isn’t very high and I didn’t have a hard time. It gets sandy in parts down by the river but alternatively, the trail climbs up to afford a great view down into the canyon.
Derek rode from Pueblo Park up to the summit of Saddle Mountain where there IS a lookout but he didn’t take a picture of it! The dirt road is a bit rough in spots, in fact, he rode his mountain bike. I’ve been up part of the road and it climbs for quite a bit. The ride was 23 miles with 3358′ of climbing. It gets really steep, loose and rocky the last couple miles up to the summit but the views are great.
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