Avenida Azul has no paved shoulder. Between Avenida Vista Grande and Encantado, the road curves through steep cuts, and drivers get only short sight lines to spot people walking on the pavement. That description comes from the ECIA's November 2026 Vistas newsletter. The newsletter also notes that a large number of pedestrians walk Azul to get between two greenbelt trails.
Santa Fe County plans to build a paved hike/bike trail along that stretch in the first half of 2027. The biggest change in the plan is at the Gallina Park greenbelt arroyo. An earlier plan to bridge the arroyo is gone, and the trail will cross it at grade on "low water crossings." The County will present the plan to Eldorado residents by videoconference on Thursday, Nov. 19, at 5:30 PM, one week from today.
The route runs on land the County already holds
The County's capital projects report lists the work as the Avenida Azul Eldorado Trail, Project #7720, in District 5. Dan Anderson is the project manager. The scope is a new multi-use trail from Avenida Vista Grande to Encantado Loop, 1.15 miles long, with a budget of $130,000.
Eldorado's road layout makes this simpler than it might sound. The ECIA newsletter explains that the subdivision has no road rights-of-way. The County owns the large tracts the roads run through, and those tracts are much wider than the paved roads. The new trail will sit almost entirely inside the County's road tract along Azul. It's designed like the County's other hike/bike trails in Eldorado, and it will be paved.
If you've walked Azul, you know the open strip beside the pavement. Under this plan, that strip becomes the trail. The County report from December 2025 listed the project's status as "Acquiring easements," so some of the route apparently needs more than the road tract. "Almost completely" is the newsletter's phrase.
The Gallina Park crossing has changed
The trail crosses the large arroyo on the Gallina Park greenbelt. The bridge has been dropped from the plan. The current design uses low-water crossings like the ones on Eldorado's other hike/bike trails where they cross greenbelts. Gallina Park appears by name on the ECIA's greenbelt and bike path map, so you can find the spot before the meeting.
Between December 2025 and November 2026, the project went from acquiring easements to a design 90% done to a construction window:
| Source | Status listed | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| County Capital Projects Report, December 2025 | Acquiring easements; projected completion listed as "Design complete" | 1.15 miles, Avenida Vista Grande to Encantado Loop, $130,000 |
| County Capital Projects Report, August 2026 | Under design, 90% complete; design milestone 9/30/2026 | Same route, same budget |
| ECIA Vistas, November 2026 | Construction planned for first half of 2027; low-water crossings replace the bridge | Avenida Vista Grande to Encantado |
The route and the $130,000 budget stayed the same across all three. In August 2026 the County still listed the design as under way, and by November the crossing method had changed. The Nov. 19 meeting is the first chance to see the version that's headed for construction.
The funding has a deadline
The ECIA Board asked the County in 2020 to put the Azul trail on its infrastructure capital improvement list, after hearing many requests from homeowners. The County later received an initial capital outlay grant for the project from the State Legislature.
The ECIA newsletter describes the timing as driven by a recently passed state law, which it summarizes as requiring capital outlay funds to be spent or encumbered by the end of 2026. The newsletter says County Public Works "has worked hard to finalize this plan so the funding won't be lost." The request dates to 2020. The end of 2026 is seven weeks from today, and the meeting falls in between.
The other end of the trail, already rebuilt
The Avenida Vista Grande end got work of its own this fall. Santa Fe County reported on Sept. 18 that it finished the Avenida Vista Grande bridge work near US 285 on Sept. 4, about six weeks ahead of schedule. Hasse Contracting did the work for $1,047,528.50, and it included new guardrails plus culvert drainage and outlet improvements.
That bridge is on the road near the highway, not on the Azul trail. Still, it's one of two County projects on Vista Grande in the same year, and the Azul trail will connect there.
What the trail joins
Azul would fill a gap in a path system Eldorado has been building for more than two decades. The ECIA's hike/bike paths page describes about 13 miles of paths along the community's main roads, shown in blue on its map as "Multi-Use Trails."
Much of that network went in during one push. A July 2004 Vistas reported the final stage complete:
- The expansion began in 2003 on Avenida Torreon and central Avenida Vista Grande, linking older paths along Avenida Vista Grande and Avenida Compadres.
- The last stage added about 2.7 miles along western Avenida Eldorado and Avenida Casa del Oro, between Avenida Eldorado and Avenida Vista Grande.
- ECIA capital funds paid for the project, about $340,000 including engineering.
The Azul trail is funded differently. In 2004, the community's own money built the paths. This time the money is a state capital outlay grant managed by the County. Upkeep follows an older arrangement: a March 2017 Vistas explained that the roadside paths are technically County property, maintained by ECIA under an agreement until they become unusable or dangerous. At that point the County takes responsibility for rebuilding them.
Rules on both sides of the crossing
The new trail connects two greenbelt trails, so anyone using it will move between two sets of rules. On the hike/bike paths, ECIA bars motorized vehicles and posts a 10 MPH speed limit.
The greenbelts are 987 acres of member-owned land that the ECIA Board manages as wild space. According to the ECIA's greenbelts page, horses and bicycles are allowed, dogs must be leashed and their waste picked up, and motorized vehicles are prohibited. Cyclists should slow or stop when they meet hikers or riders on horseback, and hikers should step aside for horses.
A low-water crossing puts all of those users on the same stretch of arroyo floor. A bridge would have kept trail traffic above it.
Getting to the Nov. 19 meeting
- When. Thursday, Nov. 19, 2026, at 5:30 PM.
- Where. By videoconference. ECIA will post the link on its website and send it by email blast.
- Who presents. Representatives from Santa Fe County.
- Questions beforehand. Dan Anderson, Santa Fe County Public Works, [email protected].
If your house backs onto Azul or you use the Gallina Park greenbelt, you might bring questions about where the paved edge will run beside your stretch of road and how the low-water crossings will sit in the arroyo. Construction is planned for the first half of 2027.
If you're wondering how a County trail project like this one would affect a specific Eldorado lot, or you just want to talk through what the Azul plan means along your part of the road, Kenny Crowley is glad to look at it with you. Let's Connect.
