New Mexico’s Sugarite Canyon hides coal ruins under pine and aspen trees

It’s cooler than you’d expect

Six miles from the town of Raton, right where the southern Rockies crash into the Great Plains, a canyon full of pine and aspen climbs from 6,900 feet to over 8,300.

Sugarite Canyon State Park covers about 3,600 acres of forest, mesa, and water in Colfax County, and it looks nothing like the desert most people picture when they think of New Mexico.

The air is cool, the ground is green, and two trout lakes sit in the middle of it all. What built this place, though, started underground.

Coal miners built a whole town in this canyon

Coal mining began here in the 1890s, and by 1912, a town called Sugarite had taken shape around the shafts.

Close to a thousand people lived in the canyon at its peak, many of them immigrant miners who came for the work. The mines slowed in the 1940s, the town emptied out, and the state turned it into a park in 1985.

A wildfire swept through in 2011, but oak, pine, and aspen have been pushing back ever since. The burn actually opened up long views you couldn’t see before.

Cast a line into 120-acre Lake Maloya

Lake Maloya spreads across 120 acres near the park’s upper end, with pine forest and rocky cliffs wrapping around the shoreline.

You can fish for stocked rainbow trout or try your luck with brown trout in the deeper water. Kayakers, canoeists, and sailors share the surface on calm mornings.

The lake’s north end pushes right up toward the Colorado border, so you’re fishing about as far north as New Mexico goes. Bring your own boat and pick a quiet cove.

Lake Alice is the calm one near the entrance

Down near the park entrance, Lake Alice sits smaller and quieter than its neighbor up the road. Crews built it in the late 1800s to hold water for the town of Raton.

A moderate gravel trail follows an old railroad bed along the canyon bottom nearby, and the pace here drops to almost nothing. Shore fishing works well from several spots along the bank.

If you want a lakeside picnic without competition for space, this is where you go.

Walk past stone ruins of the old coal camp

An interpretive trail runs from the visitor center straight through the ruins of the Sugarite coal camp. Stone foundations line the path, and a few pieces of old mining equipment still stand where they were left.

Signs along the way tell you what daily life looked like for the families who lived here. The visitor center itself was once the town’s post office.

The walk is short, flat, and gentle enough for just about anyone in the family.

Climb Little Horse Mesa for a view of three landscapes

A steep trail takes you up to Little Horse Mesa, the highest point in the park at roughly 8,350 feet.

The top is flat, grassy, and nearly treeless, so the view opens wide over the canyon on one side and the plains far below on the other.

Tall basalt cliffs cap the mesa, dark columns of rock formed from lava that flowed across this region millions of years ago. You earn every foot of elevation on the way up.

Six miles of trail loop through oak and aspen groves

The Ponderosa Ridge and Opportunity trails connect into a loop of about six miles through Gambel oak, ponderosa pine, and stands of aspen.

Parts of the route cross land still regrowing from the 2011 fire, where the open ground gives you longer views than the older forest does.

More than a dozen miles of trails run through the park in all, and you share them with mountain bikers and horseback riders. The footing is good and the crowds are thin.

Mule deer and elk show up at dawn

Mule deer and elk move through the canyon regularly, and your best chance to spot them is at dawn or dusk when they come out to feed.

Black bears and mountain lions also live in these woods, which is why every campsite has a bear-proof storage box. Wild turkeys roam the meadows and forest edges in loose groups.

The mix of thick timber and open clearings gives animals plenty of room to move, and you’ll notice tracks on most trails.

Over 100 bird species have been spotted here

More than 100 kinds of birds have been recorded inside the park, and year-round feeders at the visitor center pull in resident species right where you can watch them.

Hummingbirds buzz the feeders in summer, wild turkeys strut through the clearings, and eagles and owls patrol the tree line. Lake Maloya draws waterfowl, and osprey pass through in spring and fall.

The park runs bird and butterfly programs during the warmer months if you want a guided look.

Wildflowers fill the meadows by midsummer

Spring and summer bring color across the meadows and along the lake shores, with wildflowers spreading through every open patch of ground. Butterflies follow close behind once the warm months settle in.

The mix of forest, creek, and meadow supports a wide range of plants, and photographers come specifically for the blooms set against the dark canyon walls.

Your easiest route to the best color runs along the lower trails and near the edges of Lake Maloya.

Rock climbers come for the dark basalt columns

The basalt caprock cliffs that cap Little Horse Mesa draw rock climbers looking for a quieter spot to climb.

Tall columns of dark volcanic rock rise from the canyon walls, formed by volcanoes that were active in this area long ago.

The cliffs belong to the larger Raton-Clayton volcanic field, and the routes here see far less traffic than better-known climbing areas in the state.

You can work the rock without waiting in line or sharing an anchor.

Snow turns this canyon into a winter park

The high elevation brings colder, snowier winters than most of New Mexico ever sees.

Cross-country skiers take to the trails through much of the season, and ice fishing pulls anglers out onto the frozen lakes when temperatures drop low enough.

Snow piles up heavily at the higher elevations, turning the canyon white from rim to rim.

The Lake Alice campground stays open year-round, so you can set up a base camp even in January and have the place nearly to yourself.

Explore Sugarite Canyon State Park in New Mexico

You can reach Sugarite Canyon State Park by taking Exit 452 off Interstate 25 at Raton, then following NM 72 east and turning north on NM 526 to the park entrance in Colfax County.

The park stays open year-round and charges a day-use or camping fee. Inside you’ll find two campgrounds, a visitor center, picnic areas, and boat access on both lakes.

Give yourself a full day to cover the trails, the ruins, and at least one lake.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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