Trinidad Lake State Park
Reilly Canyon Area

The Reilly Canyon area is accessed from State Highway 12, west of the main Trinidad Lake State Park entrance, right across the road from the turnoff to Cokedale and Upper Reilly Canyon. The road goes down the bottom of the canyon parallel to the old Cokedale coke ovens before entering the State Park. There's a self-pay fee station and then you go a bit farther, up onto the old asphalt of Highway 12 (before Trinidad Lake Dam was built and the reservoir filled). Then the driving route turns east along the edge of the water, and how far you can go depends on the water level in the lake.

However, near the fee station on the east side of the road is the actual trailhead for the Reilly Canyon Trail. The trail goes up over the ridge and drops into Lower Reilly Canyon, then stays up on the slopes above the water's edge as it works its way eastward around coves and across canyons to where it connects with the Levsa Canyon Trail near the edge of the Carpios Ridge Campground.

The Reilly Canyon Trail has some up and down to it as it travels about 4 miles each way. Most of the route is through the pinon-juniper uplands above the north side of Trinidad Lake, an area that sees lots of mule deer, elk, black bear, bobcat, wild turkey and even mountain lion, plus many other birds and smaller mammals. On the western part of the trail you will also come across some small heaps of coal slack and other artifacts left over from the days when this was a big coal mining region.