"Took this one on with my three dogs based on review of ample shade, but it's 50/50 shaded at best. Road to the trailhead isn't something I'd attempt even in my Outback, so we added another mile to our hike to park on the groomed road. Trail is in bad shape, with ample thorn and sticker bushes to walk through. My. shins are torn up, and I spent an hour tweezering stickers out of my shoes and socks after the hike. I'd have been lost without my AllTrails route downloaded. The upside is no other hikers on the trail at all. We saw a skunk, a frog, some deer, and came within 100 yards of a HUGE bear around mile 2. !!! We had just stopped to video the leaves of some cedars fluttering in the breeze so were being quiet. 30 seconds after we started moving again I see a HUGE bear rump about 100 yards ahead of us. He noticed us at the same time and took off in the opposite direction. whew! After staying put and making a lot of noise to be sure no others around, and pulling out my bear spray just in case, we carried on and had no further sightings. We hit the peak at 4.4 miles, and it is a very nice view! Lots of notes in the logbook - we missed missed meeting another group by one day. After a..." — tmetz1226 • Sep 17, 2022

"It was nice to hike a peak so close to home. It only took an hour’s drive to the south. I am only interested in hiking 11K peaks and above in New Mexico, but to join fellow peakbagger, Richard O., I decided to hike this peak. Also, I look at the Manzano mountains every day so I thought that I might as well climb the highest point. From I-40 I took road 337 south of Tijeras for about 45 minutes to the town of Manzano. Here I took road 131 (Forest Road 253) SSW then west until I came to Forest Road 422 then I continued on this road south for several miles until I came to a very rough 4WD road. I turned west and went up this road several hundred yards. The name of the trailhead is Kayser Mill. I did not see a sign. A few years ago this was a beautiful forest but a fire ravished the lower elevations in the area. My GPS gave a reading that we were starting at 8059 feet. We started hiking at 8:45 and had to dodge burnt and fallen trees as we started out. Several miles up the trail the burned out area stops and the rest of the hike is in a delightful, beautiful forest. We had a nice trail at times and at times the trail seemed to disappear. About half way up we crossed a small boulder fi..." — Phil-Robinson • Jul 20, 2012