The New Trail Out of Rancho Viejo: Where the Arroyo Hondo Segments Go This Fall

Before this summer, a walk from Rancho Viejo mostly meant a loop that brought you back where you started. Since June, the neighborhood fire station has been the hub of a concrete trail network. One branch heads west over a bridge to NM-14. Another heads east to Richards Avenue. Farther along, the network connects to a trail that runs north to the Railyard and south to Lamy.

Santa Fe County opened Arroyo Hondo Trail Segments 2 and 3 with a public ribbon cutting on Thursday, June 4, 2026, at the Rancho Viejo Fire Station Trailhead at 37 Rancho Viejo Boulevard. The two segments add 2.8 miles of concrete, multi-use trail. On paper that's small. The County's Open Space, Trails, and Parks program manages 70 miles of trail, 9,400 acres of open space and 18 parks. What matters is where these 2.8 miles sit. They connect pieces that used to be separate, and the connection point is in Rancho Viejo.

The Trailhead Is the Junction

Most people know the fire station on Rancho Viejo Boulevard as a building, not a place to park for a walk. The County's directions are specific: trailhead parking is just west of the fire station's parking lot.

From there the new pavement goes two ways. Segment 3 doesn't start at the lot itself. It begins at a trail intersection northeast of the fire station. So a few minutes from the car, you choose between west and east.

The spurs matter more than they look. The Avenida del Sur and Velocity Road roundabouts are places people drive through every day. Now a walker or rider can reach them on a dedicated path instead of along the road shoulder.

West: The Bridge and NM-14

Segment 2 is the one with a landmark. It runs west from the trailhead to the Turquoise Trail Sports Park along NM-14, and partway there it crosses the Arroyo Hondo on a 90-foot pedestrian bridge. Before June, the arroyo was something you went around. Now it's the middle of an easy out-and-back.

If you're new to the route, the bridge makes a good turnaround point. If you're going the full distance, the sports park on NM-14 is the western end. That's also the side of Rancho Viejo where the Turquoise Trail neighborhoods sit. One of the two unbuilt segments will eventually start from there, which comes up again below.

East: Richards Avenue and the Roundabouts

Segment 3 heads the other way, toward Richards Avenue, with its two spurs to the roundabouts. Santa Fe Community College is on Richards Avenue at 6401 Richards Ave. That puts the college's fall and holiday calendar much closer to the trail system than it used to be.

The section of trail that will run right along Richards Avenue, Segment 5, hasn't been built yet. For now, the last stretch to campus depends on the roads and roundabouts already there.

Two SFCC dates worth knowing this season:

• Jordan Ann Craig, Visiting Artist Lecture. Thursday, October 29, 4 to 5 p.m., free.
• SFCC Holiday Arts & Crafts Fair. Saturday, December 12, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., at 6401 Richards Ave., with more than 100 New Mexico artists and craftspeople. Free.

The December fair is the one to plan around. A mid-December morning walk east from the fire station, then holiday shopping at the college, is a weekend outing that starts and ends at home.

Farther Out: The Spur Trail and the Rail Trail

This is the part that makes the network regional. According to the County, the Arroyo Hondo system links to the east-west Spur Trail, and the Spur Trail links to the Santa Fe Rail Trail. The County's trail listings put the Spur Trail's junction with the Rail Trail 1.78 miles south of the Rabbit Road Trailhead, with the Spur running west into the Santa Fe Community College District.

Once you're on the Rail Trail, you can go two ways:

1. North toward Santa Fe Railyard Park. The City of Santa Fe manages the section from the Railyard to I-25.
2. South toward Lamy. Santa Fe County manages the remaining 12.5 miles south to Lamy.

Very few planned communities can say a trail connects them to both a downtown rail yard and a village with a train station. Rancho Viejo now has those pieces in place, linked through the Spur Trail.

The Two Missing Pieces

The Arroyo Hondo Trail is planned as six miles in five segments. Once finished, it will connect the Rail Runner station at NM-599, Santa Fe Community College and the I-25/Cerrillos Road interchange. Segments 2 and 3 were the middle. Two segments are still unbuilt:

• Segment 1 will run from the Turquoise Trail Subdivision to the NM-599 Rail Runner station.
• Segment 5 will be built next to Richards Avenue.

Those two pieces would extend what the June opening started. Segment 1 would put a train platform within trail distance of the western end. Segment 5 would close the Richards Avenue gap between the Segment 3 endpoint and the college corridor. The County announcement doesn't give a schedule for either.

The finished segments give a sense of what this kind of work costs. Segments 2 and 3 cost just under $5 million. The New Mexico Department of Transportation administered the money through its Tribal/Local Public Agency program. The County put up a 14.6% match and will be reimbursed for up to 85.4% through federal grants. Meridian Contracting built the segments, Bohannan Huston oversaw construction, and OTAK engineering designed the whole network. The trail is listed as a District Trail in the Community College District Plan, so these connections have been planned for years.

The Roads Are Changing Around the Trail, Too

The trail isn't the only new route nearby. Santa Fe County's August 2026 Monthly Projects Report, the latest one posted on the County's capital projects page, tracks two road projects close to the Segment 3 spurs.

• West Extension of Avenida del Sur. This is 2.4 miles of new road from Avenida del Sur at Avenida Van Nu Po out to NM-14. As of August, Phase I was 80% complete, Phase II property and easement acquisition was 80% complete, and substantial completion was projected for January 30, 2027.
• College Drive Extension. This is a new road connecting SFCC to Falcon Way. The August report listed it as 95% complete with a projected substantial completion date of August 20, 2026. The report doesn't say whether it has opened since, so check before planning a route around it.

The Avenida del Sur extension matters most for anyone using the trail. Segment 3 already has a spur to the Avenida del Sur roundabout, and the road extension aims at NM-14, the same highway where Segment 2 ends. Through this winter, expect construction traffic in the same area where the trail spurs reach the road.

Fall Dates on the Trail Calendar

The Santa Fe Conservation Trust already treats the new segments as a community route. Earlier this month it held a free "¡Vámonos! Find A New Path" walk on the Arroyo Hondo Trail, meeting at the Fire Station Trailhead on October 8. The Trust's calendar lists volunteer trail days on November 4, 11 and 18. The listings say details are still to be announced, the November dates depend on weather, and they don't say which trail the crews will work on. Watch that calendar if you'd like to help on the trails near home.

When you go, follow the County's posted Rules & Regulations for its open space, trails and parks. The County also has a short Leave No Trace guide for using these places lightly.

Our team at Leland Titus follows how Rancho Viejo's trail network is filling in, one segment at a time. If you want to know when Segment 1 or Segment 5 moves forward, or which nearby streets are closest to the fire station trailhead, get in touch and we'll pass along what the County announces.