Two humans and two dogs made and unplanned ascend on Atalaya Mountain and Atalaya Peak.

The weather was brilliant with only a few small cumulus here and there in the sky. We parked at St. John's College and walked down to the Arroyo, followed it a bit and then took trail 174, via the hard/difficult route, up to trail 170 and then to the top. The views are stunning - Bring a good camera because you have a lot of great photo ops. along the way. My favorite views were actually not over the city side but the other side. Endless untouched green landscapes of the Pecos Wilderness stretch out for many miles. In the distance you see a few Mesas and depending on the distance - The different faded shades of blue/green as the distance pales them. They look like they would be perfect to block print or cut-out into a piece of art.

This route starts easy, then easy/moderate, then moderate/difficult and towards the end it is easy/moderate again.

We did the hike in three hours. Two hours up and one hour down. Lovely, strenuous hike very close to Santa Fe.