Wheeler Peak in New Mexico
After finishing the Mt Elbert hike in Colorado, I immediately drove five hours south to Taos, New Mexico. I spent a couple of days there relaxing and roaming about the town. It's a pretty nice place.
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| Taos and north central New Mexico |
On Sunday the 16th I left town very early and headed up to Taos Ski Valley, to the Williams Lake trailhead, which is a large dirt parking lot. There were only a handful of cars there when I arrived, and I got my gear together, put on my pack and headed up the trail just a bit after sunrise.
The first half mile or so winds through the ski resort, and then you're into the woods. A pair of fast hikers overtook me not long after I started, and then I had the trail to myself. It was cool and quiet, and much more wooded than I expected.
The trail to Williams Lake is relatively gentle and gains a little over a thousand feet in about 1.9 miles. At the lip around the lake, before you actually see the lake, the Wheeler Summit trail branches off to the left (east) and starts switchbacking up Wheeler's steep western slope.
Soon after I started up, a solo hiker came up behind me and passed me by without exchanging any pleasantries. He was a man on a mission, I suppose.
The topo maps look like this section will be a strenuous climb, but it's really not bad at all. It averages about a 16% grade and the switchbacks are well designed to make the route manageable for most hikers. There a few talus fields along the way to cross where careful foot placement is required, but they're not too bad.
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| The Williams Lake Trail Route |
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| Just above treeline, looking up at Wheeler Peak |
Before I knew it, just a little over two-and-a-half hours into the hike, I was at the saddle just to the north of Wheeler Peak, in between Mount Walter and Wheeler Peak. The rest of the ridge traverse to the Wheeler summit only takes a few minutes, and although it was a bit cold and breezy there in the saddle, the view was absolutely beautiful in every direction.
The fast solo hiker that passed me earlier on the ascent had tagged the summit and now descended past me just as I reached the saddle, again without a word. As I crossed the ridge to the summit, the couple that I had seen near the parking lot started their descent from the summit, leaving me alone on the ridge and at the summit. There are few things better than some time alone on a summit. I enjoyed a snack and some Gatorade, and took some pictures.
After about 10 minutes I heard a couple coming up, and after another few minutes or so they were nearing the summit. I greeted them as they came up, and we chatted for a bit. They were locals and the woman mentioned that Mt Walter, just to the north of the saddle where we came up, is the second highest mountain in New Mexico, so I thought, "Well, hell, I guess I need to go over there and tag that one, too!"
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| Strange summit plaque |
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| Northern view from Wheeler summit |
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| Summit Benchmark |
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| Southeast view from the Wheeler summit, looking at Old Mike Peak (right) |
I snapped a summit picture for the couple, and then left them on the summit of Wheeler and I crossed the ridge and climbed the other side of the saddle to briefly visit Mt Walter, which is just 28 feet shorter than Wheeler. So it was kind of a twofer hike for me.
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| Looking west from Mount Walter |
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| Looking over at Wheeler from Walter |
I then returned to the saddle and started down the switchbacks.
About halfway down offered the only view of Williams Lake, which is the destination of many hikers on the Williams Lake trail.
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| Williams Lake at the valley floor |
I passed a gazillion hikers who were on their way up as I descended. This is a popular trail, especially on a weekend, and I was very glad that I'd started early and beat the crowd. It was quite the conga line of people going up; over a hundred people would be my estimate. And down in the valley, many of the hikers along the Williams Lake portion of trail were casual hikers; people out for some Sunday time in the woods, and unfortunately, many were unaware of or unconcerned with leave-no-trace principles or any trail etiquette. Many children were freely roaming in off-trail areas, apparently on destroy-all-nature missions while oblivious parents strolled along. One unleashed dog seemed quite intent on ripping my leg off, and as I yelled at the dog and prepared to spear him in the head with my hiking pole as an act of self defense, I gave his owner an angry, WTF kind of look and said, "Don't you think that a maybe a leash would be an appropriate thing for this dog??? There's tons of little kids running around out here." He said something like, "Yeah, I guess I should do that." People can be incredibly thoughtless sometimes. And when I say thoughtless, I really mean moronic.
There was dense trail traffic for the entire 4 miles back to the car, and the parking lot was overflowing with cars when I got there. The descent only took me about 90 minutes, so the whole hike including time on the summit was about 5 hours; significantly faster than I expected.
I left the parking lot immediately to free up a spot for others, and I cleaned up and changed clothes at a quiet spot further down the mountain before I headed into town for lunch, and then onward to my next destination.
It looked like the only state high point that I could get to that had a decent weather forecast was good old Boundary Peak in Nevada, so I was headed west to try that one again. This time I hoped to make it all the way up to the trailhead without puncturing a tire so I could do the hike.
Anyway, Wheeler is scenic and pretty easy, and I recommend this hike as a great climb. But go on a weekday if you can, and go early!
P.S., This trail is full of rugged sections with very sharp rocks, and I'm really tired of seeing limping dogs in obvious pain on climbs like this with selfish owners urging them on. Although this trail is relatively short and easy, it's really not a good trail for dogs; please don't abuse your dogs like this--leave them at home.
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