Galisteo Basin Preserve

09/11/2025

Two and a half weeks ago, the Galisteo Basin Preserve was overwhelmed by a storm of record power and scale. More than five inches of rain fell in just a few hours—a deluge so fierce it scoured the land with the force of a thousand-year flood.

In the aftermath of the flood, we are tasked with making urgent repairs: rebuilding roads and arroyo crossings, reclaiming trails, stabilizing erosion, and establishing safe passage to areas of the preserve’s heartland. The work will be time-consuming and costly. If you plan to visit the GBP during the next few weeks, please bring extreme care and avoid areas that have been severely impacted by erosion.

By current estimates, Commonweal will need to devote upwards of $40,000 to return the preserve to a condition where roads are fully accessible, trails are securely rebuilt, and drainages are cleared of trees and rocks.

Needless to say, FEMA won’t be coming to our rescue.

A generous gift today will constitute a gesture of resilience equal to the land’s own: an affirmation that this unique open space and recreational resource, beloved by thousands, will not be left torn and scarred by an epic flood. With your support, Commonweal will be able to quickly and efficiently restore the paths, crossings, and overlooks that tie us to this land and to one another.
https://www.galisteobasinpreserve.com/donate

05/01/2025

The Galisteo Basin Preserve and Commonweal Conservancy have been nominated by the readers of the Santa Fe Reporter as Best of Santa Fe candidates in two categories: Best Nonprofit for the Environment and Best Outdoor Trail.

If you love Commonweal and the trails and open spaces of the preserve, please show your affection for our work by visiting the Local Living section of the Best of Santa Fe competition. Vote before May 15, 2025: https://vote.sfreporter.com/local-living/best-outdoor-trail

10/29/2024

Since 2019, Commonweal Conservancy has welcomed members of the Santa Fe Star Gazers Club to the Galisteo Basin Preserve on more than a dozen evenings to observe the astronomical wonders of the universe. The Club's night sky viewing events have offered amateur astronomers an opportunity to refine their skills and share their knowledge of the cosmos in a setting blessed by extraordinary darkness and clear skies. It’s an educational and community-building initiative that Commonweal Conservancy will be making available to school groups and the larger Galisteo Basin Preserve community as we grow the organization’s capacity to host events and gatherings in the years ahead.

For more information about the SFSGC, feel free to reach out to Jim Eagle at [email protected].

09/27/2023

Please join us on Saturday, October 14, 2023, when Commonweal Conservancy, the Santa Fe Fat Tire Society, and Bicycle Technologies International (BTI) host the 5th Annual GBP Poker Ride/Run.

The GBP Poker Ride/Run is an opportunity to enjoy the Galisteo Basin Preserve’s trails, make new friends and, if you’re lucky, win great prizes!

During the event, cyclists, runners, and hikers will draw cards from each of five “GBP dealers” stationed at key intersections of the preserve trail network. After collecting a complete 5-card poker hand, participants will present their cards to the Poker Ride/Run judges. Those with the highest value hands (i.e., full house, straight flush) will be eligible for exciting prizes from our luxury lodging and bike shop sponsors.

Participants can ride, run, or walk courses of varying lengths and difficulty. Options include 2-mile, 5K, and 10K courses and, for the most ambitious players, a 12-mile route.

Event sponsors include Four Seasons Resort at Rancho Encantado, Buffalo Thunder Resort and Casino, Rob and Charlie’s, the Broken Spoke, Mellow Velo, and New Mexico Bike N Sport. All proceeds from the Poker Ride/Run will help fund Commonweal’s on-going operations and stewardship initiatives through 2023.

For more information and to register, visit https://www.bikereg.com/gbp.

07/28/2023

On Wednesday, the Santa Fe Reporter announced that its readers had voted the trails of the Galisteo Basin Preserve as Santa Fe’s best!

The Reporter’s 1st place award is an acknowledgement of Commonweal Conservancy’s volunteers and the generosity of its donors. It honors the work of Santa Fe Fat Tire Society, Core Crew, the Northern New Mexico Horsemen’s Association, and countless other individuals and groups who’ve devoted weekdays, weekends and summer evenings to the painstaking tasks of trail design and construction, trailhead expansion, and wayfinding enhancement.

With gratitude and humility, my colleagues and I celebrate the voice and votes of our community.

Please join Commonweal this evening in the Santa Fe Railyard between 5pm-9 pm for a block party hosted by the Santa Fe Reporter honoring Santa Fe’s best! The gathering will be a long-overdue celebration of our collective work and accomplishments.

01/20/2023

After investing thousands of dollars in the redesign, production and installation of more than 74 wayfinding trail signs throughout the GBP, Commonweal experienced its first case of sign vandalism. This weekend, a newly installed wayfinding sign near the Shepherd’s Trail was ripped from an intersection and thrown into a nearby arroyo. This inexplicable act of vandalism is deeply discouraging, both to Commonweal and to the scores of volunteers who have dedicated hundreds of hours to the construction and maintenance of GBP’s trail network.

Over the past 20 years, Commonweal has made the GBP freely available to our community as a recreation and open space resource. During this time, tens of thousands of hikers, cyclists and equestrians have traversed the GBP’s trails: practicing extraordinary care and respect for the property’s ecological and recreational resources. Commonweal’s ownership history has been graced with remarkable fortune and generosity. When grace and respect are not properly observed, however, we will appreciate the community’s assistance in reporting acts of vandalism and/or inappropriate behavior to the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Department and Commonweal. Thank you for your affection and caretaking of the GBP. Together we are creating an open space and recreation resource for the ages.

12/20/2022

On Sat, December 17th, the first race in the GBP Winter Series took place at the Cowboy Shack Trailhead. Despite the bitterly cold temperatures, approximately 80 trail runners completed the 3.5 and 7-mile courses. Unfortunately, before the last racers were able to finish, a hiker took down all the flagging marking the courses, causing some of the racers to take the wrong route. We understand that the gentleman who took down the flagging was probably trying to be helpful, but he was not authorized to clean the courses either by Commonweal or Feral Adventures, our partner who organizes the series of winter trail races. If you are the person who removed the flags, please get in touch with Mary Peterson from Feral Adventures at 410-533-3010 as soon as possible to return them. The remaining races in the series will take place on January 21 and February 18, 2023. To register for the GBP Winter Trail Series, please visit www.feraladventures.com/winter/challenges And a reminder, if you come across flagging while recreating at the GBP, it is probably there for a reason — either to mark a race course or for some stewardship purpose, like re-routing a trail — please do not remove flagging without specific authorization from Commonweal Conservancy. Thank You!

11/29/2022

The GBP Trail Series will help keep you outdoors and active during the winter months while giving you the chance to experience some of the most beautiful (and runnable) trails in New Mexico. Races are held every third Saturday during the months of December through February with a post series social/celebration after the February race. Commonweal thanks race organizers Mary & Mike Peterson and Feral Adventures for putting on the race as well as these generous race sponsors: Four Seasons at Rancho Encantado - Santa Fe, Canteen Brewhouse, Bluebird Running Company, Craft Sports, Glorieta Adventure Camps and Core Crew.

07/15/2022

In late June, Commonweal donated a fully-restrictive conservation easement overlaying 1,382 acres to the Santa Fe Conservation Trust. This last-in-a-series of donations will ensure that a property once planned for development as an environmentally responsible, mixed use/mixed income community, known as Trenza, will be dedicated instead to open space and trail use in perpetuity.

Since 2008, Commonweal has donated eleven conservation easements to the Santa Fe Conservation Trust (SFCT). Over the past 14 years, the organization has also facilitated a handful of other gifts of conservation easements to the SFCT from GBP-affiliated landowners. In aggregate, the value of these donations totals more than $8.0 million!

06/24/2022

During the past week, monsoon rains brought welcome relief to the forests and grasslands of northern New Mexico. Weather forecasts suggest that rain will continue to grace the region for the next 30+ days.

Concurrently with the monsoon’s onset, firefighters in the Pecos Wilderness have made good progress containing the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak fire such that the state’s wildfire management resources are regaining their strength and capacity.

With improved soil moisture levels and the reduced risk of nearby fires, Commonweal Conservancy will reopen the Galisteo Basin Preserve’s trails and trailheads on Friday, June 24, at 7:30 am.

Over the past month, community members demonstrated generous understanding and respect for Commonweal’s decision to close the GBP to public use. Although the temporary closure was not without criticism, my colleagues and I appreciated that a strong majority of GBP enthusiasts honored Commonweal’s decision to put resource protection goals ahead of near-term recreational interests.

On your next visit to the GBP, please take care to ride on trails that are dry and stable. Cycling and riding on wet trails can damage trail surfaces and, in some cases, be dangerous.

Going forward

With support from hundreds of individual donors, property owners and institutional funders, Commonweal’s small staff of part-time professionals has ensured the permanent protection of more than 9,000 acres within the Galisteo Basin Preserve. By our shared efforts over the past 19 years, the GBP has become the largest nonprofit-owned, publicly accessible trails and open space resource in the American Southwest.

My colleagues and I are pleased to welcome the community back to the GBP this week – a place we collectively celebrate for its beauty, inspiration and joyfulness.

Photo credit: Nevada Wier

05/25/2022

In order to minimize the risk of human-caused wildfires, Commonweal will be closing public access to the open spaces, trails and access roads of the GBP effective Thursday, May 26, 2022. The trails and open spaces of the GBP will remain closed until the organization determines public access can be safely and responsibly accommodated later this summer or fall.

Commonweal’s board and staff believe that restricting public access — while impossible to enforce perfectly — will allow the organization to minimize the risks of accidental fire, injury and damage to the GBP’s ecological and privately-held property resources.

During the closure, Commonweal staff will be working with volunteers to complete a variety of stewardship initiatives. These will include improvements to the GBP’s wayfinding infrastructure, trailhead parking, and habitat resources. Carefully supervised, these stewardship efforts are expected to bring new value and improved resiliency to the recreational and ecological resources of the GBP. If you’d like to serve as a GBP steward during the closure, please email [email protected] with your contact information.

Admittedly, this is a difficult decision for an organization that has held public access and outdoor recreation as primary purposes of our conservation mission.

In the face of unprecedented threats to the ecological resources of the GBP, however, our commitment to the protection of the preserve’s diverse wildlife; trees, shrubs and grasses; cultural and historic resources; along with its scenic and recreational values, must take precedence.

In the weeks ahead, we will keep you apprised of our plans for re-opening: a decision that will be advised with support from resource conservation and wildland fire management professionals.

Following impassioned discussions among Commonweal Conservancy’s staff and board of directors, the organization determined that an abundance of caution must guide its stewardship of the recreational and ecological resources of the Galisteo Basin Preserve (GBP).  The facts and conditions that info...

05/12/2022

Vote for the Galisteo Basin Preserve!

The Santa Fe Reporter has nominated the Galisteo Basin Preserve as one of Santa Fe’s premier hiking and biking trail resources. Although the competition is significant (e.g., Dale Ball Trails, Windsor, Atalaya) we’re hopeful that the community’s significantly increased use and enjoyment of the Galisteo Basin Trails (as the Reporter refers to them) will attract strong support as a “Best of” winner in 2022! To make visible your love and appreciation for the trails and protected open spaces of the GBP, cast your vote before May 31 at https://vote.sfreporter.com/local-living/outdoor-trail.

Vote for your favorite places to favorite places to eat, shop and play in Santa Fe May 1 - May 31.