By Brad Stebleton

Nestled on a high plateau at the foot of the Nacimiento Mountains in northwestern Sandoval County New Mexico lies the village of Cuba (population 760). This scenic community is not widely known outside of our state. Fidel Castro was never in charge there. However, the village did enjoy a turn in the limelight when the National Christmas Tree was harvested from the nearby mountains back in 2005.

Cuba is a “hub community,” or market center, for a large area of northern Sandoval and southern Rio Arriba counties that includes a number of ranches, tribal communities, and small villages. The community is also a stopover point for travelers headed to Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In fact, Cuba is surrounded by a wide variety of stunning public lands, enjoyed by residents and visitors alike.

However, just like in other parts of the west, access to some of these lands around Cuba is not always easy or straightforward. Rural lands in the west have long had a variety of owners: federal, state, tribal, and private, often in an illogical checkerboard configuration. This is certainly the case in the Cuba area. In fact, the area to the west of town is known by locals as the “checkerboards.” This situation can result in desirable public lands existing as islands in an ocean of private property and/or other publicly owned lands that are not accessible to the public at large. These “inholdings” can thus be either landlocked or difficult to access.

One such island in the Cuba area is Mesa de Cuba, a striking geologic feature that forms a backdrop to the west of town. This upraised chunk of sedimentary rock lies within a roughly 7000 acre section of US Forest Service property that was created early in the last century. Though not legally landlocked, accessing this area had for many years been challenging for residents.

View of the Nacimiento Range from Cuba Mesa

Like many rural communities in America, Cuba struggles with higher than average rates of diabetes and heart disease. Doctors have long known that the best way to deal with these conditions is to prevent them from occurring in the first place. One of the most effective preventative measures is regular exercise. Walking is a very good form of exercise, as it is easy to start and requires no special equipment, just a sturdy pair of shoes. Of course, it also helps if people have easily accessible public lands nearby in which to walk.

Fortunately for Cuba they have the Nacimiento Community Foundation. Since 1988 the energetic volunteers serving this nonprofit have accomplished a great deal of good for Cuba and its surrounding area. This includes starting a community garden to help residents to grow their own healthy food and operating a food pantry that serves over 150 area families every month. So when the need arose to increase opportunities for safe and accessible exercise in the Cuba area, the Foundation was uniquely positioned to tackle the problem.

Enter Dr. Richard Kozoll. A well-known physician who has been practicing in Cuba for decades, Dr. Kozoll had a unique insight into this problem and had been working with Nacimiento for many years. Thus, the Step Into Cuba program was started in 2008. This effort began as a coalition of Dr. Kozoll and other health care professionals interested in promoting physical activity to address prevention and control of the Cuba area's diabetes problem. It developed a broad base of partners as they increasingly focused attention on providing trails and walkways/sidewalks. Step Into Cuba is sponsored by Nacimiento, who has administered all of the grants and contracts supporting the program.

Cuba Mesa was an early target of the program as it is such a spectacular and well-known feature for residents and visitors alike, and people were well aware of the challenges in accessing it. After much effort, the foundation found a family willing to donate a very long 30 acre piece of property that extends from a Sandoval County road all the way to the boundary of US Forest Service land. From there a hike to the top of the Mesa is possible. An added bonus was that another 16 acre property owned by the same family reaches from the opposite side of that road to a small riparian area, providing an opportunity for a completely different hiking/walking experience. Nacimiento acquired both pieces of property in 2010.

However, there were still problems with access to the National Forest and the Mesa, despite the generous land donations. The county road was a narrow two lanes with hardly any shoulders. A trailhead parking area was needed. But Nacimiento lacked the funds and the equipment to construct such a facility. This is when our County got involved. Around that time our Public Works Department lost the ability to turn its large pieces of road equipment within private property at the end of the road. As the road was very narrow and the turning radii of the equipment very large, this was causing a big problem for our road crews, particularly during the winter months.

After discussions between the County and Nacimiento, an agreement was reached in 2011. Nacimiento gave the County a portion of their property adjacent to the road for the trailhead parking area and the County constructed the parking lot. Once this facility was constructed, it made a nice area for our Public Works drivers to turn their equipment around. A win-win solution. In the meantime, volunteers from Step Into Cuba undertook the hard work of constructing a 1.8 mile trail across the Nacimiento property to the Forest Service boundary. The Fisher Community Trail was born. Since the dedication of the trailhead property to the County involved a platting action and acceptance by our County Commission, I had to do a site inspection before placing this item on their agenda. Of course, this involved hiking the new trail from end to end. A tough job, but someone had to do it!

A mixed age group of hikers gathers at the Fisher trailhead on National Trails Day 2017

Since that time the Step Into Cuba program has continued its efforts, developing, improving, or promoting 13 other trails, including a one mile trail to the riparian area mentioned above. That trail is accessed by the same trailhead as the Fisher Trail. By all accounts these trails and the walking programs associated with them have become very popular. You can learn more at their website www.stepintocuba.org. The hard work of these volunteers will no doubt result in an improvement in the overall well-being of the people in the Cuba area. It was very rewarding for me to play even a small part in these efforts.

The COVID 19 crisis has reminded many of us of the tremendous benefits to our mental and physical health resulting from fresh air and exercise. Speaking for myself, my daily walks in a nearby state park have been a true lifesaver during this whole ordeal. This all further reinforces the positive contributions to our world from programs like Step Into Cuba.

About the Author

Brad Stebleton is a senior planner for Sandoval County, NM. He is a Certified Floodplain Manager. He currently serves as secretary on the board of Western Planning Resources and is the chair of The Western Planner Editorial Board.

Stepping Into Cuba, New Mexico