San Pedro Parks Wilderness, Protected wilderness area in Rio Arriba County, New Mexico

San Pedro Parks Wilderness is a protected area in New Mexico covering 41,132 acres of mixed conifer forests interspersed with open mountain meadows. Elevations rise to 10,592 feet at the San Pedro Peaks, creating a varied landscape where forest transitions into alpine grassland.

In 1931 the U.S. Forest Service designated San Pedro Parks a Primitive Area, an early administrative protection for roadless land. It was accorded federal Wilderness status in 1965, not 1964, under the 1964 Wilderness Act. That status bars motorized and mechanized vehicles, including bicycles, and prohibits roads, buildings, logging and mining, while hunting, camping and fishing remain allowed with proper permits.

The name "parks" comes from the grassy meadows that break up the spruce forest, and the largest of them, San Pedro Park, is the destination of the 10.69-mile Vacas Trail from San Gregorio Trailhead. The wilderness lies in the Nacimiento Mountains, and the nearest town is Cuba, New Mexico. In fall hunters come for elk, deer, bear and grouse, and in winter the trails are used for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.

The main entry is the San Gregorio Trailhead on Forest Road 70, where the Vacas Trail runs 10.69 miles to San Pedro Park with a gradual climb from about 9,000 feet. About 100 miles of trails cross the area, including roughly 8 miles of the Continental Divide Trail in the northeast. Snow can cover the meadows until early June, and many are boggy from heavy precipitation.

San Gregorio reservoir, a half-mile-long artificial lake at 9,400 feet on the southern edge, is stocked with rainbow trout alongside native Rio Grande cutthroat trout in its feeder streams. The wilderness also holds a large elk herd that summers on the plateau, and 730 cattle are permitted to graze inside its boundaries.