Trail Overview

This trail takes you up into the Santa Fe National Forest. This is an easy trail for most with AWD or 4WD. Make sure you have gas as this is a vast mountain range where you can drive all the way to Espanola if you want. We did the trek as a (pass-through) starting on the Clara Peak Trail and then turning on to the Encino Mountain Trail ending up on the other side of the range. There are several places to camp, we saw Elk and all kinds of wildlife. The trail itself is somewhat maintained. It's better on the Northside of the trail but still pretty easy all the way to Clara Peak Trail. Beautiful views all along the trail. Summer is best for camping and driving this route. No real obstacles to drive over but there are some small rock gardens here and there and some mud puddles. Pretty tame for the most part. This is a sleeper mountain range and one I highly recommend checking out! You can get out of the mountains 3 different ways by connecting up the trails, making it an adventure.

Photos of Encino Mountain Trail

Want to see more?
View All Photos

Difficulty

Make sure you have fuel. We burned more than we thought we would doing the whole pass through route. Road is pretty easy a few mud spots but mainly just dirt and small rock gardens. An SUV with decent clearance will have no issues on this particular section of the trail.

Technical Rating

Tim Hayward

May 26, 2026

Open

Beautiful drive with several climates to go through. Great road with some washboarding but overall very easy. Cattle, deer and elk along with forest service trucks to watch out for. Had enough rain to keep the dust down and green everything up.

Gabriel Saavedra

Apr 18, 2025

Open

Great trail with lots of different colors in the landscaping from sand stone to pine trees at the top of th mountain