I need to make a few notes to help set in my mind possible pitfalls if I take any groups on this hike.
On the top half of the figure eight, when you are in the arroyo and after you pass the castle butte, watch for the white caliche hill, with a rounded, orangish colored hill behind it to the right, that has the faux snake (a stick) on it. Soon after this, look for a short cut that will take you out of the arroyo. Follow a trail across a flat, sandy stretch and then go downhill to cross the same arroyo you were in and immediately go up a small hill and out of the arroyo. Almost immediately, you climb to your left up an inconspicuous path (not a real trail) to the ridge that leads back to the overlook of the lovely, lone butte I saw from lunch on Wednesday.
To the west, you can see views of U.S.285 and Clara Peak Road from this ridge. Right at the LL group's lunch spot, you go steeply downhill from the ridge and back to the cross on the figure eight, otherwise known as the gray pavement because the rocks look like paved sidewalks. You turn right to go back to NM503.
Regarding the bottom half of the figure eight, on the way back, after passing the pinnacles on the left side, you walk through a narrow arroyo. Remember to point out to people the house you can see if you look back as soon as you come up out of this arroyo.
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