The Wahatoya Trail located in the Spanish Peaks Wilderness Area. It's a 9.4-mile horse accessible trail and can also be accessed from the other side on the Wapishapa trail (which will add another 7 miles or so) 

DIRECTIONS TO THE WAHATOYA TRAILHEAD

1. Take exit 52 on I-25.

2. Stay on this road through the Walsenburg downtown.

3. Turn right at the second traffic light. You will be on US160 West.

4. Drive about 11 miles to CO 12 south on the left. It’s the Highway of Legends.

5. Turn left onto 12 and drive for a few miles.

6. Cross the bridge over the Cucharas River.

7. Continue until you cross the railroad tracks.

8. Continue through the La Veta downtown until you reach Garland.

9. Turn left on Garland. The next intersection is Birch.

10. Turn right onto Birch St. You will be driving on gravel streets and roads.

11. Stay on Birch which will take you up a hill and around curves pass the Town lakes on

the right.

12. Just beyond the lakes you will come to a kind of fork. Turn left at the fork. Do not go

straight.

13. Drive a short distance to County Road 360 on your right.

14. Turn right onto CR 360 and drive for six miles to the intersection with Forest Service

Rd. 442 on your right. 37.42381, -104.97942

Parking

You will park your trailer along the county road and ride your horses up FSR 442. It is a

2-mile high clearance 4WD road to the Wahatoya trailhead. Elevation gain of 2800 feet.

You will pick up the trail at the trailhead.

Trail report 6/29/24  

Obstacles 

The first two miles to the saddle between the West and East Peaks have been cleared.

The three logs in the photos I sent are located within the next 2.6 miles.

Log #1 37.38092, -104.94395

Log #2 37.38039, -104.94383

Log #3 37.3888218, -104.947205

The next 1.3 miles has not been scouted.

You will reach the USFS cabin at 37.36759, -104.93888.

The next logs are stretched out over 3-4 or more miles. 

I was not able to copy the photos from the GAIA map.

Log #4 and #5 (I think) are at 37.36271, -104.95077. Elevation 9962.

They are stacked on top of each other.

Scree Field

There is a scree field of about 400 feet. Some experienced riders with experienced trail horses walk across this field. Other riders get off and lead their horses.  The scree path is flat across so there's no possibility of sliding downhill which is great.  The screen itself is on the larger side but ok to walk on.  The screen field does not have holes so we felt completely comfortable walking across the large pieces calmly and slowly.   At one point a horse balked because one of the large slabs teeter tottered a bit but we just let him work it out calmly and wasn't a problem.  

Trail

The trail takes you across high mountain saddles. It starts out on a couple mile road ride up the 4wd path with an elevaction gain of 2,800 feet. So it can be steep at times but is still a road overall. The trail itself has a few light switchbacks up and down the valleys.  It also has some ledgy areas along the first 2 miles off the trailhead itself.  These can be sustained because the trail is a very narrow single track and many times follows the edges of the mountain as it cuts up to the saddle between east and west. It continues to be fairly ledge as it weaves its way down into the vallye.   It's a single track through the forest and over a few small rocky aeas.  There are a few access points for water for the horses once the trail itself starts as you cross the creek.  

Trailhead

There is a turnaround but wouldn't be suitable for super large rigs to turn around. You also need to park on some small turnouts on the side of the road.  It's wide enough to pull off for a rig or 2 right on the side.  We had to tie our horses to one side while saddling up because there wasn't room to park with space on the other side.   There aren't many cars coming down this road so it wasn't bad saddling up the horses on the one side.