Juan Trail ( FT 399), Winsor Trail ( FT 254) - Santa Fe National Forest

 The next day (4/21/19) was Easter Sunday and another beautiful spring morning found us out on NM 475 also known as the Hyde Park or Ski Basin Road. This time were starting off 1.25 miles east of the Chamisa Trailhead where there are pullouts for the Juan Train ( FT 399) which I presume is named for the Juan Gabaldon Grant. The trail starts off on Santa Fe County Open Space land and follows the charming Little Tesuque Creek. 
In a short distance there is trail junction with the forest trail taking off to the right. It was a nice little climb on the gravelly, narrow path up to the high and dry piñon and juniper country. We met only one hiker on the way to the saddle. We had seen more than a dozen cars along the road so we presumed that most of hikers were using the open space trails.
 At the ridge top there was a decrepit fence. At first we walked along the fence line trail, but after consulting our map realized that it was the Saddleback Trail which wanders around high and dry for a couple of miles over to the junction with the Chamisa Trail. Our route went through the opening in the fence and it quickly began bringing us downhill several hundred feet via several switchbacks cut into the open, grassy hillside punctuated by Christmas tree sized conifers. I suspect a past fire created this open scene at the midpoint of this nameless canyon. We saw the first of many check dams built to control erosion in this steep country.

As we walked down the faint trail through the pines, the stream trickled on the surface at times and disappeared under the sand at others. There was even a tiny waterfall.

Eventually the trail left the stream bottom on the right side, and soon thereafter we came to the junction with the Winsor Trail in open terrain that was feeling more like the desert than the forest in the bright sunshine. The  Winsor Trail was looking like a rough road (which I'm thinking it once was) as we started climbing back to the east and it stayed high above the Big Tesuque Creek for more than a half mile (we saw that there is an alternate trail lower down but it didn't connect with the Juan trail). Early on the stream was thick with still bare deciduous trees in a relatively wide valley, but it then transitioned into a narrow gorge thick with firs, gambel oaks and the occasional granddaddy pondersosa pine.

 There were bridges across the stream and very few open areas along the banks, but we found one to enjoy our lunch on next to the nearly continuous white water of the stream.
This section of the Winsor ( which is National Recreation Trail) is very busy, with most folks coming up from the western traihead (not the way we came). There were many more people, dogs and bikes that we and our dogs were used to, but it never got to the point of being annoying. Still I wouldn't recommend it if you are looking for solitude on a weekend.
 Our return was warm and we stopped frequently to rest ourselves and our dogs, especially when we had to climb back up the switchback section. Another beautiful seven mile plus springtime hike in the Santa Fe National Forest.