Hike Leader: Beth Corwin
Date: March 1, 2020
Hike Distance: 6.2 miles
Elevation Gain: 945 feet
The Survey Trail is often good for a late-season snowshoe. At over 10,000 feet elevation facing east in the shade, it's one of the last trails to melt each winter. This was true of our March 1st snowshoe. There was still more than two feet of snow on the Survey Trail and we measured 42 inches at one point on the Crest Trail. Our group of four snowshoers started from the Ellis Trailhead and took the Switchback Trail to the beginning of the Survey Trail. The trail crosses the road shortly after this point. The plow berm was steep on both sides of the road but everyone managed to clamber over the awkward berms. Once we were on the main Survey Trail, snow conditions were excellent for a lovely walk in the winter woods. About 0.9 miles into our hike, we entered the Sandia Mountain Wilderness. About 0.7 miles later we came to the War of the Roses Tree, a massive Douglas Fir estimated to be about 565 years old.
The lowest elevation of this hike is about 2-1/2 miles from the trailhead where the Survey Trail intersects the 10K Trail. At 9,928', this is the only spot in the entire loop under 10,000 feet. From here we hiked up the 10K trail to Del Agua Overlook and took a break to enjoy the view.
Walking south on the Crest Trail from this point, one passes through an area where the drifted snow blown over the edge makes for lumpy, disorienting terrain. The Survey Trail is marked with blue diamonds, but the Crest Trail is not. It's hard to tell where the trail is when crossing this section in the snow. A gps is helpful if you hike this area before others have tramped the trail.
We stopped for lunch beside the Crest Trail at about 4 miles into our hike, noting that we had not seen a single person on the trail all day. Even when we continued south and walked through the Lower Crest Parking Lot to the Switchback Trail, we still did not cross paths with any other hikers, despite seeing lots of cars and hearing people in the distance. Walking down the Switchback Trail, we were less than half a mile from our car when we finally encountered the first hikers of the day. We arrived back at the car having crossed paths with just three people on our six mile hike. It was a fun winter's day in the mountains with a nice group of people, and more solitude than one might expect in this Wilderness near the Metro.