Behind the Scenes at Glorieta Adventure Camps: Best Purpose-Built Mountain Bike Trails in New Mexico
Trail: Jagged Axe. Rider: Bryce Zeigle. Photo: Greg Heil
During my stay in the downhill mecca of Angel Fire, my friend Bryce drove up to join me for a day of lift-served mountain biking. Previously, Bryce had mentioned that he was now living and working at an adventure camp that had some mountain bike trails on their property, and he had casually invited me to swing through and ride the trails at some point. While having riding out your back door might be one of the most important factors that provides a massive boost to your everyday quality of life, I didn't think much of it from a travel standpoint. Then, when I planned a month-long trip to Northern New Mexico, I looked at the map, noted where his camp was, and decided it was maybe a little too far to warrant a side trip. And besides, how good could those backyard trails really be?
Fast forward to our day shredding the bike park, and Bryce started talking about his backyard trails to some of the riders that we shared the chairlift with. Literally every other rider at Angel Fire that he mentioned the trail system to had not only heard of the trails—known collectively as "Glorieta"—but had also ridden them, and were absolutely stoked on the quality of the singletrack! After hearing Bryce describe the constant trail building they were doing, and having him remind me that Big Mountain Enduro has featured Glorieta as a stop several times, I decided to change my plans and work Glorieta Adventure Camps into the itinerary.
The Story of Glorieta Adventure Camps
Glorieta Adventure Camps now boasts the best purpose-built mountain bike trail system in New Mexico. The evolution of this network is a curious story of fortuitous connections and private land ownership.
Ripping down the rugged Jagged Axe trail. Rider: Greg Heil. Photo: Bryce Zeigle.
The story begins with the Christian adventure camp that owns 2,400 acres of mountainous terrain outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico. The private property abuts national forest land on all sides, save for the entrance near the interstate. The camp focuses almost exclusively on adventure sports, which would seem to lend itself to mountain bike trail development. However, mountain biking as an activity is used very little for the camp's summer programming, but the camp's director, Anthony Scott, is an avid rider.
Thanks to the director's passion for riding, Glorieta has worked for years to develop and build a mountain bike trail system. And thanks to building the majority of the trails on private land, they've had much less red tape to navigate, even though they still abide by USFS recommendations and conduct archeological and environmental studies. Abiding by these recommendations has also helped the camp gain traction with the USFS and allowed them to build some trails on national forest land as well. While not every proposed project on national forest land gets approved, the relationship and process is ongoing.
Holy Mole Trail. Rider: Greg Heil. Photo: Bryce Zeigle
Over the years, Glorieta has found and cultivated top-tier trail builders that have constructed many of their trails. Anthony Scott’s oldest son, Alex Scott, constructed what is now currently their best flow line, known as Holy Mole. The quality of the build was so good Alex decided to take trail building seriously and turn it into a profession. He is now based in Northwest Arkansas, the current hub of professional trail building in the United States, and owns a trail building company called Jagged Axe Trail Designs.
While Alex brings his crew over from Arkansas to build trails at Glorieta from time to time, the rest of the trails at Glorieta have been built and are maintained entirely by in-house crews. Employees like my friend Bryce pitch in to cut singletrack when they have time. During COVID lockdowns in 2020, Bryce dedicated a lot of hours to help build Cairn Me Up, a beginner climbing trail to reach the top of Jagged Axe. Building trails with in-house labor sounds like a tall order, but the resource-rich camp owns all the needed tools, including expensive mini excavators.
One of the newest trails built at Glorieta Glorieta is an expert-level jump line with tabletop jumps that appear to be as big—if not bigger—than the largest jumps in the renowned Angel Fire Bike Park. While most private landowners would be leary of the liability from having such massive jumps on their property, by all accounts the upper management at Glorieta has grown accustomed to dealing with such liability issues through all of the other adventure sports that take place on the property. Other adventure sports at Glorieta include downhill scooter riding, massive 40-foot waterslides, rock climbing, a via ferrata, ropes courses, hiking, and so much more. The camp carries ample insurance to protect against liability for all of these sports, and by all reports, mountain biking is just simply another sport under that umbrella. This is an advantage that most private landowners do not have.
Chili Dog Trail. Rider: Greg Heil. Photo: Bryce Zeigle
Even though most of the best mountain bike trails are located on private land, Glorieta permits the public to access the trails from a trailhead located outside of the summer camp. They view building and maintaining this resource as a service to the mountain bike community, both locally and those traveling from afar. The trail system has also played host to the venerable Big Mountain Enduro Race for several years before being derailed by the pandemic in recent years. Glorieta is a favorite stop for the tour, thanks to its brutally technical bike-optimized descents.
It might seem strange that a private Christian camp about 30 minutes outside of Santa Fe would be home to the best purpose-built mountain bike trails in the state of New Mexico, but stranger things have happened. When you consider the freedom of trail development offered by private land, the talented trail builders the camp has been able to enlist, and the considerable insurance coverage already in place, the evolution of the trail system at Glorieta seems like a given!