Domingo Baca Trailhead 230

Paid parking. Love the trail. Hard steep hike, tends to be overgrown. Recommend keeping all trails app open, easy to get lost.

This one's a tough one... I had attempted this one once before and finally had success over the weekend. This hike has become plenty popular with COVID times. Overall, the trail is not anything too steep, just long at over 8 miles round trip and a 3500 elevation increase and the trail easy enough to find on the map via google maps or alltrails.com. It took us about 2 hours 35 minutes to reach the top of the trail where the plane crash is and about 2 hr 15 min on the way down. Seeing the plane crash site is worth it and humbling, although I probably won't take this one again for awhile. Others met La Luz at the top where the trail connects and loops back around toward Pino (about 16 miles). The views in the fall are just wow- the leaves changing, the sunlight, some water in the creek. Watch out for bears, snakes, and poison ivy, other than that you'll be fine! Bring plenty of water and start off early enough before it gets dark (the parking lot opens at 7!). Help me- my legs are still sore 2 days later from this lol 2020 #32

I love hiking this trail. Usually I only do four or so miles round trip, but this last time, I decided to hike the trail in it's entirety. It definitely was not an easy hike at all. The first three miles are not too rough, but that last mile approaching the crash site is grueling. The incline is crazy steep and there are forks in the trail which can be tricky. This hike is definitely not for the faint of heart or new hikers. As an experienced hiker, I still found myself huffing the entire way up. Reaching the plane crash site was incredible humbling and also very rewarding. I completed this hike alone and seing the site of the crash was very somber. There is definitely a shift in atmosphere as you sit among the wreckage. I don't think I would hike the entire thing again anytime soon, but it's definitely worth it if you've never seen the crash site. Some recommend taking the tram and hiking down, but that's the easy way out. Just hike the whole thing and experience it as intended.