Cerro de la Garita

Cerro Pedernal at dawn on the wonderful drive up to this one.

1 AUGUST 2026 W5N/SE-005

Two Stars – a nice summit. I’d do it again. Recommended.

Elevation:	10,620′
Route:	Old forestry roads
Hike Distance:	2.3 miles round trip
Elevation Gain:	300′
Navigation:	Tricky*
Steepness:	Gentle
Vehicle:	Passenger car
Road:	Excellent dirt roads
Cell Coverage:	None from Verizon

* Landmarks are obscured by the trees. The maze of forestry roads extend in all directions – even where you don’t want to go! Make careful note of your route up!

What a pleasant surprise this one turned out to be! What adds the second star to the rating is not the cool ten thousand foot summit itself, which is a nice enough respite from the sweltering summer heat below, but rather the magnificent drive up from Youngsville. Not often a summit has a drive this smooth and beautiful to recommend it. As Fred NT5X noted, forest service roads 100 and 99 pass through some gorgeous country. The classic New Mexican summit Cerro Pedernal shows all her faces as you rise up into the alpine meadows and aspen forests on the north side of the massive Valles Grande Caldera. Both FS road 100 and 99 are excellent – well-graded, well-drained and well-surfaced. I was a bit concerned about being at the end of 20 miles of dirt road in monsoon season with thundershowers forecast for the afternoon. It turns out my worries were baseless in that these excellent roads would’ve been fine in wet weather. Obviously a lot of money has been spent building and maintaining them. I saw several small sedans going up on my way down.

The hike involves a large number of what appeared to be old logging roads that contour around the summit. Strangely I saw no evidence of the kinds of logging operations associated with a such elaborate maze of bulldozed roads. Rather what cutting I did see looked like forestry operations. Smaller trees were cut and lie in pieces on the forest floor.

Here’s a satellite shot of my hiking route in red. Note the maze of forestry roads!

Here is my descent route

The summit is forested and offers little in the way of views. The drive up more than compensates for this lack. The actual summit lies just over the boundary and fence below. The activation zone extends to the north side of this fence so it is not imperative for the activation to crawl under this fence.

Radio conditions weren’t great and I wasn’t able to see any spots due to no cell coverage from verizon, but I did work WD8EQA and AB2SG on Pike’s Peak. Also I deployed my big doublet and had a full 10 watts with my recharged battery, so I seemed to be getting out better than last time. It was good to hear Christian F4WBN in France so clearly for the first time in a while.