Santa Fe National Forest's 1.5 million acres include landscapes ranging from the open cattle country of the Glorieta Mesa in the southeast, to the high peaks of the Sangre de Cristo Range (the Truchas Peaks exceed 13,000 feet), to the still-active volcanic lands of the Jemez Mountains in the west.

Aspen grove

While Santa Fe and points south have a characteristically Southwestern high-desert feel, most of the national forest will remind you of the Colorado Rockies — jagged peaks, glacial cirques, scree slopes, dramatic rock cliffs, meadows that blnme with wildflowers in July and August, and magnificent vistas. These landscapes are treed with Engelmann spruce, Douglas fir, white fir, corkbark fir, ponderosa pine, limber pine, bristlecone pine, and aspen. Wildlife includes elk, deer, bear, turkey, and Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep.

The greatest treasures of the Santa Fe National Forest are its wilderness areas. These include the Dome Wilderness, replete with cliff dwellings; the San Pedro Parks Wilderness, lush, green, and thick with fish and game; and the Chama River Canyon Wilderness, with many-hued sandstone bluffs. But the topper is the huge Pecos Wilderness in the Sangre de Cristos, one of the best — and most popular — hiking destinations in the Southwest.