Skiers can follow marked trails or blaze their own routes through the hilly landscape. Two operators maintain overnight yurts for rent. Day weekend, skiers participate in the Chama Chile Classic, New Mexico's largest citizen's 5k or 10k ski race. The Jemez Mountains offer a network of gently rolling Forest Service roads and trails. This popular, heavily used area ensures that tracks are blazed, even though none are maintained.
Skiers are usually out early.
Marked trails flank the mountain, which hosts the Mount Taylor Winter Quadrathlon every February. Usually, about 500 hardy competitors bike, run, ski and snowshoe from Grants to the summit and back over a 55-mile course. The eastern foothills of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains offer outstanding cross-country possibilities, especially in the Santa Fe National Forest west of Las Vegas and the Valle Vidal area of the Carson National Forest west of Raton. A trail behind Lake Maloya in Sugarite Canyon State Park is also open for Nordic skiing. Careening down slopes atop giant inner tubes is popular wintertime fun in the Cloudcroft area.