The Trails That Almost Weren’t There

Dale Ball, founder of Santa Fe Conservation Trust

If you’ve spent any time in Santa Fe, you’ve probably encountered the Dale Ball Trails. The network of more than 20 miles of trails winds through the foothills just east and north of town, offering piñon-juniper woodland, rocky slopes, wildflowers, and wonderful views of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

It’s easy to assume the trails have always been there.

They haven’t.

The Dale Ball Trails were the result of an ambitious conservation project led by Dale Ball, a founder of the Santa Fe Conservation Trust. His vision was to preserve public access to the foothills while connecting a network of trails across a complicated patchwork of public and private land.

That meant doing something much harder than simply building trails. Easements had to be negotiated with landowners, government agencies had to cooperate, money had to be raised, and routes had to be carefully planned. Trail builders then had to create paths that fit the landscape while minimizing erosion and disturbance.

Even the trail signs tell part of the story. Those numbered junction markers—so useful when you’re trying to figure out whether you’re at Junction 4 or Junction 12—are the result of careful planning and considerable volunteer effort. They turn what could be a confusing maze of trails into an unusually accessible urban trail system.

And that may be the most remarkable thing about the Dale Ball Trails: they bring something that many cities have lost almost completely into the heart of Santa Fe—undeveloped land.

You can have breakfast downtown and, not long afterward, be walking beneath junipers, watching hawks circle overhead, or looking across the foothills toward the Jemez Mountains.

That experience isn't accidental. It represents years of conservation, cooperation, and persistence.

The next time you encounter one of those little numbered signs, remember: you aren't just looking at a trail marker. You're looking at evidence of a community that decided Santa Fe's mountains should belong, in some measure, to everyone.