"Piedra Lisa Peak," Rincon Ridge, "Tabo Hill"

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May 20, 2026

A few spare hours in the evening once again found me in the western Sandia Mountains, this time completing three relatively unvisited peaks in a semi-popular hiking area just north of Albuquerque. 

Peaks climbed 

Peak	Elevation	Topographic Prominence	Summit Coordinates (lat/lon)
"Piedra Lisa Peak"	8,312 ft	306 ft	35.24569, -106.48673
Rincon Ridge	7,032 ft	301 ft	35.23985, -106.49869
"Tabo Hill"	7,032 ft	296 ft	35.21653, -106.49243

Total Stats

7.5 miles

3,000 ft gain/loss

I parked at an unmarked trailhead on the west side of Forest Rd 333, then walked up the road for a bit to meet up with the Piedra Lisa Trail. It was a decently warm day, and the relatively low elevations of the peaks I was going for would mean that the heat would not abate by much with elevation. 

As the trail reached an obvious saddle at around 8,200 ft, I turned left (west) and followed a use-trail to the summit of Piedra Lisa Peak. I was somewhat surprised to encounter someone coming down from this peak (well not that surprised actually, since the use-trail was pretty well worn). 

The profile of Rincon Ridge was easily visible to the southwest, along with the many bumps on the connecting ridge. Descending the west ridge of Piedra Lisa was a short class 3 affair, with a few short sections of searching in order to find the easiest route through bad rock. After that, easy plodding up and over and around several humps brought me up to Rincon Ridge, where I enjoyed a fabulous sunset lighting up all the spires and towers to the west. 

From the summit of Rincon Ridge, I picked up a use-trail descending south along the main ridge. It basically followed the ridge until I was just northwest of Tabo Hill at a decent size saddle. From there, it descended a short steep bit into Juan Tabo Canyon, which on this day consisted of a dry sandy wash. I crossed this wash and headed straight up the northwest ridge of Tabo Hill where there was a decently well defined use-trail. 

A short jaunt to the summit of Tabo Hill revealed city lights and a fading backdrop of mountains against the darkening eastern sky. I descended east into another wash, and followed it for a few hundred feet south back to my start point.