East Mountain Trails & Bikeways Master Plan - Bernalillo County

Paths connected one rural community to another,
as well as resident farmers to the gathering
centers of their community and to the more
remote areas integral to their livelihood. Current
land grants, traditional village areas, and major
subdivisions are shown in Figure 6.
Carnuel Land Grant indicated that no public trails
should be proposed for their lands at this time.
Chilili Land Grant did not respond to invitations to
participate on the project. However, there is an
opportunity to remember the traditional function
of trails in connecting parts of a rural landscape.
In the case of unpaved roads such as Gutierrez
Canyon Road, Vallecitos Road and Juan Tomas,
traditional routes in the form of trails as part of
the proposed trail system can be preserved.
3. Community Form, Centers,
Neighborhoods & Subdivisions
As in many rural places, the landscape of the
East Mountains traditionally contained large,
open, rural extractive use areas such as crop
farming, orchards, pasturage, and timber, or
small community hubs at key junctions. These
small nodes live on in a variety of ways. Places
such as Cedro, Ponderosa, Sedillo and Tablazon
have been largely displaced by recent
developments, leaving only a name, a few
buildings or a ruin, as in the case of the Village of
Juan Tomas. Other places, such as Cedar Crest,
San Antonito, Carnuel, Monticello, Tijeras,
Yrissara and Escabosa, have preserved some of
their place qualities but changed with the times.
Both Carnuel and San Antonio operate and
maintain functioning acequia associations as
political subdivision in the State of New Mexico.
The Village of Tijeras is incorporated as a
municipality. Many of these latter areas contain
important civic structures and gathering places,
such as post offices, community centers,
schools, shopping areas, parks, bars, restaurants
and churches, and represent important
destinations for the trails system. The map in
Figure 6 also shows many of these destination
points.
More recent development in the East Mountains
has taken a different form. Residential
development has replaced other rural uses of the
land. Subdivisions and neighborhood
associations have increasingly replaced the small
community crossroads and family and land grant
lands. A shared rural community landscape is
being replaced by a fenced, more private
landscape. In the process, many older trails and
connections have been lost or replaced by roads.
But the need for trails remains. Many of these
newer residents moved to the area seeking a
rural quality of life that would permit equestrian,
ATV, or other types of off-road recreational use.
In addition, the arrival of new residents has given
rise to other needs for alternative transportation
and recreation. Children living in these
communities need safe walking routes to school.
Resident equestrians and motorized recreation
enthusiasts need routes away from high traffic
corridors. Many of the private subdivisions also
have a need for new access routes for egress
and ingress during a fire, which could also serve
as trails. Figure 6 also shows neighborhood
associations and major subdivisions.
Section C. Demographics & Ongoing
Development
The East Mountain Area is one of the fastest
growing areas in Bernalillo County outside the
Albuquerque City Limits. The trail system
envisioned by the Master Plan will serve the
various needs of the population. As a result, the
Master Plan needs to provide for the facilities that
will meet both the current and future needs of the
area. The maps provided in this section used
data from the Mid Region Council of
Governments. The unit of analysis is the Data
Analysis Sub Zone (DASZ).
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EAST MOUNTAIN TRAILS AND BIKEWAYS MASTER PLAN