Friends of the Sandia Mountains: Supporting Sandia Ranger District Since 1997

Notices and Highlights

Sandia Crest recreation area closed until January 2027. Click here for details and alternative hiking routes.

Everyone
– We love our mountains!
– Volunteer opportunities
– Presentation materials available from May 5 membership meeting
– Adopt-a-highway cleanup project rescheduled for May 15
– Forest Service prepares for wildfire season
– Forest Service seeking volunteers for help with Tijeras Pueblo site and museum
– Forest Service revives Visitor Orientation Program
– Forest Service announces surveys on the Cibola and Gila National Forests

Members
– Help with In Memoriam page
– Welcome our new members
– Volunteer opportunities
– Report volunteer hours

Click on a link above to go to details below. You may need to scroll back up slightly to see the topic header. Click on the up arrow (^) at bottom right of page to return here.

We Love Our Mountains*

*Technically, it’s Sandia Mountain (singular), but we use the plural because of the northern and southern peaks.

Weather and Road Conditions

Volunteer Opportunities

If you enjoy the outdoors and want to give something back,
join Friends of the Sandia Mountains!

A great way to get involved is to join Cibola Trail Rangers, an email group consisting of hikers, bikers, XC skiers, horsemen, etc., who frequent the trails in the Sandia Ranger District and are interested in exchanging information on trail conditions on both an immediate and continuing basis. The group includes FOSM members trained to correct reported problems. Please report corrective actions as well as problems so the FOSM trail maintenance crew doesn’t hike to fix a problem that no longer exists. FOSM member Sally Lowder maintains a comprehensive database of reported trees and their disposition.

Or join our partner organization
New Mexico Volunteers for the Outdoors

Our volunteer work focuses on single-day activities in the Sandia Ranger District. If you are looking for opportunities ranging across New Mexico and involving multi-day projects, check out our partner organization New Mexico Volunteers for the Outdoors (NMVFO) at https://nmvfo.org.

April 30, 2026 – Sue Harrelson of NMVFO writes: “Hello Friends – I could use some help preparing for a Crest trail clearing project. Volunteers for the Outdoors will be working on the Crest trail on May 16-17. In order to camp there, we’ll have pack horses bring in water. Pack horses are wide! We (FOSM) have cleared Cienega trail enough for the horses to get up it, but a bit more work remains on 1/2 mile of Crest trail, to get to the campsite.

If you would like to help with brushing/lopping/cutting small oaks, we could meet at the Cienega trailhead at 8:00am on Monday, May 4, 2026. It will be a 2.5 mile hike, and a 2,000′ climb, just to get to the work area, so its tough.

If you want to go, please let me know, and tell me if you have your own pruning saw and loppers, or if I should bring tools for you.

Thanks so much!
s.harrelson@nmvfo.org“

We Learned about Ciudad Soil and Water Conservation District and Tijeras Creek Watershed Collaborative at May 5 Membership Meeting

Presentation materials from the meeting can be found here.

Adopt-a-Highway Project Rescheduled for May 15

April 28, 2026 – Susan Gregory announced:

FOSM Adopt-a-Highway Spring Cleanup
Friday, 15 May, 9:00 – 11:00 am
Mile 4 – 5 on NM536 Crest Road

The good news is we have an excellent chance of receiving significant moisture in the Sandias Thursday and Friday of this week; however, that will interfere with our highway trash pickup and brushing activities scheduled for Friday.

The earliest date we can reschedule is Friday, 15 May. Although I will be traveling, I will try to send out a reminder.

If you are interested and available, please RSVP to Susan Gregory here.

Forest Service Prepares for Wildfire Season

April 15, 2026 – KOB 4 TV reports: U.S. Forest Service crews in New Mexico are already training for wildfire season, with daily preparation and helicopter support to assist on fires.

The U.S. Forest Service said low snowpack this year is making that preparation even more critical.
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“There’s no lag time here,” Matt Rau, a fire staff officer for the U.S. Forest Service said. “And so we’re prepared as we were last year for an early start for fire season, and the potential for large fire growth is present all across the southwest this year for sure.”

Peak fire season typically hits in May and goes through late June.
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Training and other preparations are taking place at the Sandia Ranger Station. Click on the image above for the full report.

Forest Service Seeks Volunteers for Help with Tijeras Pueblo Site and Museum

FOSM’s board of directors has agreed to assist the Forest Service in administering a volunteer program to support continued management of the Tijeras museum and associated interpretive site. Click here for details.

One of the ways FOSM is helping the Forest Service with continued management of the Tijeras museum and associated interpretive site is by hosting registration for the annual Archaeology Summer Camp, July 27-31. Click here for details.

April 8, 2026 –  Sandra Arazi-Coambs, Sandia/Mountainair Zone Archaeologist, writes: Attached is a flyer for our upcoming (Level 1) docent training for Tijeras Pueblo Archaeological Site (TPAS) volunteers. This training will be mandatory for anyone who is interested in working at the site and interacting with the public in any capacity. For folks wanting to lead tours, there will be an additional training (Level 2).

We have some outstanding instructors for this training (Dr. Judith Habicht-Mauche, professor emeritus from UC Santa Cruz and Dr. Dave Phillips, professor emeritus from UNM). I am excited to see it moving forward. For the first training we are going to be accepting 15 participants.  It is first-come first-serve and I already have a handful of folks on the list. If there is more interest, we will try to add an additional training later in the year.

Please reach out to me directly (sandra.coambs@usda.gov) if you are interested in this or subsequent trainings!

Forest Service Seeks Volunteers to Provide Visitor Orientation at two Locations

Sandia Ranger District is seeking to revive its vistor orientation program halted by the closure of the Crest House and the pandemic. FOSM members are encouraged to volunteer to serve either at the Interpretive Hut at the Doc Long Picnic Area or at the lower Tram terminal. Hours are flexible, and training will be provided.

Details are availble here.

Public Surveys on the Cibola and Gila National Forests

Surveys are voluntary and all responses are confidential; names are not included, and interviews last about 10 minutes.

Questions asked include where you recreated on the forest; how many people traveled with you; how long you were on the forest; what other recreation sites you visited while on the forest, and how satisfied you are with the facilities and services provided. About a third of survey participants will be asked to complete a confidential survey on recreation spending during their trip to measure the economic impact to local communities.

Information about the National Visitor Use Monitoring program can be found at https://www.fs.usda.gov/about-agency/nvum.

Member Messages

In Memoriam
Thanks, especially to Sally and Bob Lowder, for helping identify former members of Friends of the Sandia Mountains (or New Mexico Friends of the Forest) whom we’ve remembered with photos and links to their obituaries on our new webpage. Please send your suggested additions and favorite memories for sharing on the page to webmaster@friendsofthesandias.org.

Last updated 5 minutes ago