Blue Dot Trail(edit)

Sunday morning hike with my friend Giri in a grand canyon of the Rio Grande river known as White Rock Canyon. We used what are known locally as the "Blue Dot" trail (to descend into the canyon) and "Red Dot" trail (to ascend back up). The trailheads for both trails are on the canyon rim in the community of White Rock, NM ... a major set of neighborhoods in Los Alamos. The top halves of both of the trails are quite steep and winding and often require stepping from rock to rock. Nearer the river is more conventional single track trail. Connecting the two trails is a pleasant foot trail that crosses streams from multiple springs along the route and affords easy access to the main channel of the Rio Grande as desired. The views throughout the hike are terrific and we hit on perfect weather on this sunny February morning. The bottom end of the Red Dot features a pretty riparian area complete with small waterfall and soaking pool. We put a vehicle at each trailhead on the canyon rim to eliminate the need to walk the rim and complete a circle, although you can use a combination of residential street and a canyon rim trail once you are back on top (adds about 2 mi. to the loop. The visitor center in White Rock on Highway 4 can help with directions. See Everytrail.com trip at http://goo.gl/Usn303