215 Headquarters Ranch, Jemez Springs to VC02, Sandoval County, NM, USA

A most fabulous 4.5 mile hike. Starting from the historic buildings of the Ranch headquarters, SW along the dirt road for a bit passing a lovely rushing stream, then turning right/north and heading up a study grade for a bit, and then leveling out And walking along what looked to be an old logging road. Very gentle terrain once I got to that level. There were about 10 mushy soggy stream crossings although several of them were just swamps, not really streams. Just be aware of the possibility of mud. Wildflowers in full bloom, tons of birds. Fascinating to walk through several bio zones, from lush grasses to recovering forest. Highly recommend! But! Was very hard to find the trail down to headquarters. If you’re looking at the topographic map, you can see it’s a little stream valley, but I think I was on one of several game trails until closer to the bottom where I found the human trail, in my photos shown by the blue blazes on the Ponderosa Pines. Might be easier to do the reverse loop of what I did. Head north west from the ranch headquarter buildings, at the slope until you get to the flattened out farmer logging road at about 9200 feet. Turn left and the loop will be obvious. in my photos shown by the blue blazes on the Ponderosa Pines