Some of Pam Neely’s earliest childhood memories are steeped in solitary moments outdoors. Growing up in a military family that moved frequently, she found a deep connection with nature wherever she landed.
While living in Massachusetts around age 7 or 8, Neely recalled wandering from her house through woods to an open field, where she discovered monarch butterfly chrysalises on milkweed. She also explored a nearby pond filled with frogs, turtles, snakes, and fish. Though captivated by her explorations, she always knew to return home before getting into trouble.
Now in her early 50s, Neely still seeks out solitude in nature — but on a much larger scale. A longtime Santa Fe resident, she has spent over two decades exploring the Pecos Wilderness in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, where she says she feels most like herself.
“In some ways, the center of my life is my time up there on my own,” Neely said.
This deep connection with the wild has culminated in the release of a new guidebook — the product of more than ten years of exploration and effort — detailing a 132-mile thru-hike from Santa Fe Plaza to Taos Plaza.
The idea was born in 2015, when Neely sought remote trails for hiking with Riley, her reactive husky mix. Preferring solitude to crowded routes, she started learning about the lesser-traveled paths in the Santa Fe and Carson national forests.
From her early days exploring East Coast woods, Neely has always been drawn to discovering how paths connect. As she grew more familiar with New Mexico’s hidden trails, she saw the potential for a continuous thru-hike between Santa Fe and Taos.
“Over time it became pretty obvious, there had to be a way between Santa Fe and Taos, and it seemed like the most obvious thing in the world,” Neely said. “It became a puzzle to me and I just kept chiseling away at it, and now here we are.”
Neely first completed the thru-hike in 2018. Since then, she has refined the route, factoring in water sources, safety, and scenic quality. Her original journey included a strenuous trek through the 2013 Jaroso Fire burn scar — now excluded — where she had to crawl under numerous fallen trees. At Truchas Lakes, she weathered a fierce hailstorm that could have destroyed her tent if not for the protection of nearby trees. The next morning, she and Riley listened to coyotes howling nearby as they had breakfast.
While acknowledging the inherent risks of backcountry hiking, Neely takes safety seriously. She holds a wilderness first responder certification, carries bear mace, and uses a Garmin inReach device to stay in touch with her husband.
“That’s the funny thing about being out on your own,” Neely said. “You are working against fear and that always is there, but there comes a certain time where you kind of adjust to it and all the noise in your head gets quiet enough and you come to trust your skills and yourself enough that you can handle what comes up. You kind of get past that whole initial noise in your head and the fear of being out there and then you get to be on the other side of that, which is … transformative isn’t really enough of a word, but that’s the best that I can do.”
The Santa Fe to Taos Thru-Hike Guidebook breaks the journey into six segments:
- Santa Fe Plaza to the Santa Fe ski basin
- Ski basin to Pecos Baldy Lake
- Lake to Santa Barbara Campground
- Campground to Forest Road 442
- Forest Road 442 to Rio Chiquito bridge
- Rio Chiquito bridge to Taos Plaza
Each segment ranges from 19 to 26 miles. With a pace of 12 to 14 miles per day, the full hike can be done in about 10 days. Alternative itineraries are included for hikers who prefer slower paces — completing the hike in three weeks with 4–8-mile days — or faster ones, with 18–20-mile days finishing in one week.
The route winds through some of the most breathtaking high-altitude terrain in New Mexico, where weather can shift rapidly and elevation can reach up to 12,000 feet at the Santa Barbara Divide. Starting and ending around 7,000 feet, the trek involves significant elevation gains.
Neely recommends the hike only for experienced backpackers, especially those accustomed to high-altitude conditions or longer thru-hikes of 100 to 500 miles.
“The thing to keep in mind is it’s not a flat 10 to 14 miles a day,” Neely said. “There are 4,000-foot elevation days and the whole time you’re above 9,000 feet, so especially when I talk to people who don’t live around here I’m like, ‘You might want to scale back your expectations of yourself.’”
Still, Neely emphasizes that the hike doesn’t have to be done in a single stretch. The guidebook outlines ways to complete it over several weekends. A dedicated section highlights 25 day hikes along the route, ranked from “very easy” to “very hard.”
One common challenge for thru-hikers is access to resupply points. Neely addressed this by arranging a storage locker in the village of Tres Ritos, just 0.2 miles from the route. With a paid membership, hikers can ship gear or provisions to themselves, retrieving items using a pair of security codes.
The 193-page guidebook includes detailed maps (57 in full color), 60 trail photos, and a comprehensive checklist of supplies. It also features alternate routes, safety tips, water source information, a Q&A for prospective hikers, and descriptions of local wildlife and plant life.
Neely began drafting the guidebook in January. With feedback from several beta readers, she released the first edition on May 12. She also consulted with local and state search and rescue teams to ensure her guide promotes safety.
“One of my biggest worries is I have an ongoing concern of something happening to someone who is doing the thru-hike, so I am a little bit obsessed with trying to prevent that,” she said.
As a freelance writer and marketer, Neely said she hasn’t earned income from the time spent creating the guidebook. Still, the project has carried her forward and inspired her to pursue related ventures, including obtaining a license to lead guided wilderness trips.
“Juggling work and life and this project and staying fit enough to be able to go out safely into deep backcountry has been messy and hard and stressful,” Neely admitted. “But this thing just kind of hauls me forward. It seems like it wants to be, and so I just keep finding myself doing the next thing with it.”
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