Zuni Mountains

The Zuni Mountains are an uplifted dome of old rock, worn down over ages into a broad, rounded range rather than a line of sharp peaks. Covered largely in ponderosa pine, with pinyon and juniper lower down and open grassy parks scattered through the timber, they form a cool, green upland rising out of the surrounding high desert.

The Continental Divide runs along the crest of the range, the great line that decides whether water flows toward the Atlantic or the Pacific, and the long-distance Continental Divide Trail threads through the mountains. For a range so accessible from Interstate 40, the Zunis stay remarkably quiet, a place where a forest road can carry you for miles without meeting another car.

In the decades around 1900, the Zuni Mountains were the scene of a major timber boom. Companies built an extensive network of logging railroads up the canyons and across the slopes to reach the ponderosa pine, and mill towns and logging camps sprang up in the woods. The industry ran hard for a few decades before the accessible timber was cut and the operations wound down.

The mountains were mined as well, for iron, copper, and fluorspar among other minerals, adding another layer to their industrial past. Today the forest has reclaimed most of it, but the old railroad grades make superb routes for hiking, biking, and driving, and a careful eye can still spot the cuts, fills, trestle remnants, and clearings that mark where camps and mills once stood, a landscape quietly telling its own story.

The Zuni Mountains take their name from Zuni Pueblo, whose people have lived in this region for a very long time and whose ancestral lands include this high country. To the west lies the Zuni reservation, and the Ramah Navajo community sits within and around the range as well, so the mountains border living Native homelands on more than one side.

This is country with deep and continuous human ties, used for hunting, gathering, and travel across the centuries and holding cultural significance to its Native peoples. Visitors exploring the forest roads should respect reservation and private boundaries and posted areas, mindful that the range is not empty wilderness but a landscape long known and cared for by the communities around it.

The Zunis reward slow, self-directed exploration. A network of forest roads and trails, many following the old railroad grades, opens the range to hiking, mountain biking, and backroad driving, with dispersed camping and quiet clearings for a picnic. This is remote country, though, with rough roads and little cell service, so a good map, plenty of water, and a capable vehicle make the difference.

Summer is cool and green at this elevation, a welcome escape from the heat of the desert below, and the meadows fill with wildflowers. Fall brings crisp air and golden aspen and oak in the higher draws. Winter closes in with snow that can make the upper roads impassable, and spring greens the forest again. Grants, on Route 66 and the interstate to the north, makes the easiest base for a foray into the mountains.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.