The mountains and canyons around Los Alamos are filled with some excellent hiking trails, in addition to those at Bandelier National Monument, farther west.

One short route is Mortendad Cave Trail, an out-and-back (1.6 miles round-trip) that takes you to an ancestral Puebloan site consisting of an old kiva set among a cluster of cave dwellings; the ceiling of the kiva cave is carved with very well-preserved petroglyphs. You can do the route year-round, and it’s easy enough for children.

In White Rock, the White Rock Rim Trail runs three miles along the cliff edge—you’ll have suburban tract homes to your back and a dizzying canyon out in front of you. The walk starts at Overlook Park; follow signs from Highway 4 at the first stoplight in town.

You can also take a strenuous hike into the gorge along the Red Dot Trail, which passes a few petroglyphs on its way down to the Rio Grande; ask at the White Rock visitors center for directions to the trailhead, which is at the back end of a subdivision.

Thanks to the canyon walls, White Rock is also popular with rock climbers, who most frequently head to The Overlook, a 65-foot basalt wall below Overlook Park. The Los Alamos Mountaineers (http://lamountaineers.org) organization maintains a very good website with detailed route guides and information on smaller area walls; the group also helps organize the annual Meltdown climbing competition in September.

A bit of a locals’ secret, Pajarito Mountain (505/662-5725, www.skipajarito.com, 9 a.m.– 4 p.m. Fri.–Sun. and holidays) offers good skiing and snowboarding cheap ($43 for a full day), with five lifts giving access to bunny slopes as well as double-black-diamond trails. The area is just a few miles northeast of Los Alamos, off Highway 501, and luckily escaped all damage from the Cerro Grande fire.