"I started off from the Visitors Lot at St. Johns College in Santa fe. The entrance to the lot also says Atalaya Trailhead. There are two trails that begin at the east end of the parking lot. I took the one that goes to the right. I followed this trail for about a quarter of a mile where it merged with a 4WD road in a arroyo. The trail spit off again to lead to a large green water tank surrounded by a fence. At the southeast corner of the fence, the trail resumed. At about 0.9 miles from the St Johns trailhead, I came to a tee. As I could see Sun mountain off to my right, I of course took the right branch. This lead to a saddle between Sun Mountain and Moon Mountain. Taking the path to the right again, I made my way up Sun Mountain. The trail became more steep and hard to distinguish. It is an unmaintained trail, after all. But I could see the summit and by bushwhacking around eventually found the trail again. The steepest part of the trail, and the part that might be classified as Class 2 occurred near the summit. i made the summit and took some pictures of the surroundings. There are some great views of Santa Fe from there." — FrankKramer • Apr 9, 2017

"(See a Google Earth perspective of the entire hike - Click on Atalaya Mountain) I am not interested in lower elevation peaks in New Mexico, but peakery.com added a list called the Santa Fe Classics and I already had 17 of the 22, so I decided to get the remaining 5 of the classics, 3 today. This hike starts in Santa Fe. The trailhead is located in the NE corner of the Saint John’s College parking lot. This is a wonderful, close hike for the Santa Fenans, but not as lush as the mountains directly north of the city. Horses, bikers and hikers are all welcome on the first 2 peaks. I left my home at 5:15 AM, June 16, 2016, and was hiking by 6:30 AM. It was great to have a short drive! It was a cool morning, 49 degrees, and heated up later in the hike to the mid 80s. This would be a great hike in the early spring or late fall, middle summer can get a little hot. The starting elevation of the hike is 7316 feet, then drops a little to 7300 feet. There was a trail almost the entire hike, and after so many hard bushwhack hikes, it sure felt great. The only part of the hike that did not have a trail was the last push to the top of Sun Mountain. It was a hard 33 degree chug straight to ..." — Phil-Robinson • Jun 16, 2016