8/20/09
The Rio Frijoles is one of those special Northern New Mexico mountain streams ready to reward the angler who is willing to hike.
The Rio Frijoles is a small stream that flows down from the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the small village of Cundiyo, where it joins with the Rio Medio to form the Santa Cruz River, which then flows into Santa Cruz Lake
It’s a stream that I used to fish a lot when I first moved to New Mexico in the late 1960s. My stepfather had grown up nearby in Nambé, and the Rio Frijoles was one of the first places he took us.
Back then, you could drive a lot farther up the stream then you can now. In 1982, the road that led up the Rio Frijoles (now called Camino de Canyon) was closed to vehicle traffic. The members of the Santo Domingo Cundiyo Grant and residents of Cundiyo complained that people using the road were trashing the area and polluting the stream, which supplied Cundiyo’s drinking water (see end of story for directions).
The lack of traffic has allowed the vegetation to grow thick, and the water is cool and clear.
The fishing is very difficult because the area has become so overgrown, but perseverance and some brush-busting led me to a number of pools.
The Rio Frijoles contains wild brown trout. Some of them were of surprisingly good size (12 to 14 inches) for such a small stream. These were exceptionally beautiful trout, with bold red and orange spots along their sides. Some people confuse these wild brown trout with brook trout, which also have red and orange spots. The best way to tell the difference is that brook trout have small, wormlike markings along the top of their back, while brown trout will have dark spots.
Farther up the Frijoles, you can catch Rio Grande cutthroats. The Frijoles seems to be in even better and more pristine shape since the road closure. It takes some work to get there, but it’s a great place to catch a few fish, find some peace and quiet and create new memories and connect with old ones.
Directions
The best way from Española to get to the river is to take State Road 76 about nine miles to Santa Fe County Road 98. Make a right there, drive about two miles to the intersection with State Road 503 and make a left toward Cundiyo. Just before town make a right on Camino de Canyon.
You will drive about a mile before arriving at the gate, which is really nothing more than a cable tied across the road. At that point I pulled off the road and parked. I hiked up the road, the beginning of which is uphill and provides no shade. The road eventually descended toward the stream. Do not attempt to fish this stretch of the water because it flows through private land.
Just after the road crosses the stream a second time is where I found the Forest boundary. The boundary is marked by a fence, a gate and a sign and is about a mile and a half from where I parked.