| Beating the Heat - Wheeler Peak Trip Report |
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| Beating the Heat - Wheeler Peak   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: New Mexico, United States, North America Lat/Lon: 36.54854°N / 105.41553°W Date Climbed/Hiked: Jul 25, 2009 Activities: Hiking Season: Summer | Page By: MikeTX Created/Edited: Jul 27, 2009 / Jul 28, 2009 Object ID: 534142 Hits: 575 Loading... Page Score: 87.64% - 8 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
Why drive so far?I have a love-hate relationship with my home state. I don’t have any cowboy boots or a hat. But Texas is in my blood and I love it as one loves a family member – sometimes the relationship is dysfunctional.
I’m not sure I’ll ever move from here, but every summer I start thinking about it. The summer heat on the upper Texas coast defies an accurate description. Words like “oppressive” and “miserable” come to mind. It’s hard to smile this time of year. Most people walk around with a sweat-drenched scowl.
Needless to say, cool mountain air has a certain allure to me and trips to the mountains are always on my brain during the summer. This summer I convinced my family that we should take a road trip to visit the mountains in New Mexico. After doing some research and talking with my family we decided to head up to the Taos Ski Valley in the northern part of the state. There are closer places that we could go, but we picked the Taos area so we could take in some whitewater rafting while we were there. It’s a great way to cool off.
High Plains DriftingFrom where we live, the drive to Taos Ski Valley is over eighteen hours long. Twelve of those hours are spent trying to get out of Texas.
Texas is vast and it is only fitting that such a place be home to a vast oddity like the Palo Duro Canyon. Second in size only to the famous Grand Canyon, the Palo Duro Canyon is obscure even to most Texans. Driving across the Llano Estacado to the high plains area of the Texas Panhandle, the land is mostly flat and you would never guess that the canyon was nearby. I only heard of it as an adult and have been curious about it ever since. So, on Wednesday we made a side trip to Caprock Canyon State Park located on the eastern half of the Palo Duro Canyon system. We stopped there, walked around and took some pictures. It was a cool overcast day, which made for a comfortable visit.
After a whole day of driving we spent the night in Amarillo. It’s a pretty nice town and there’s no humidity. Maybe I’ll move there someday.
InterludeOn Thursday we drove west and then north through New Mexico. The flat lands of the high desert eventually gave way to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. As we headed north, we drove through Taos. That was interesting - lots of Native American art, pottery and traffic. We finally arrived in the Taos Ski Valley, elevation 9,200 feet. We spent the next couple of days checking out the ski village and rafting down the Rio Grande River.
A Quick Trip Above the TreelineOn Saturday I got up at 5:00 am, dressed quickly and drove to the Williams Lake trailhead, which is at around an elevation of 10,000 feet. I'd hoped that my family would come with me, but they decided to sleep in. You can only lead a horse to water I guess. It was very cool outside; probably around 50 degrees fahrenheit. I started hiking at around 6:00 am and arrived at Williams Lake (elevation around 11,000 feet) in a little less than an hour. I had been concerned about the altitude, but I felt great and I seemed to be making good progress. After a little rest and a snack by the lake, I headed up the climbers trail toward saddle between Mount Walter and Wheeler Peak. This is probably the steepest trail I’ve ever hiked. It was a lot of fun going up, even though I lost the trail a couple times. I made it to the saddle in a little less than two hours. The view from this point was spectacular. I felt like I could’ve just stayed there for hours.
Unfortunately, I was a little pressed for time, so I made my way south along the ridgeline to the summit of Wheeler Peak (elevation 13,100 feet).
There were three other hikers there; two from Utah and one from Albuquerque. The guy from Albuquerque had passed me on the way up. When I got to the summit he shared some cinnamon roll bread with me that was very good. I talked to the other hikers for a while and took some pictures. The guy from Albuquerque told us that he regularly ran marathons and his best time was a little over three hours. When I heard that I didn’t feel too bad that he had passed me up.
I stayed on the summit for about 20 minutes or so and then began my descent. Descending this trail was strenuous for me. It was very steep and had lots of loose rocks. I slipped a few times. On the way down I met a local guy who told me he had broken his leg descending this same trail a couple of years ago. I was very careful after that. It took me over an hour and a half to get back down to the lake. The Albuquerque guy passed me on the way down. I took a few more pictures back at the lake and then headed back to the trailhead.
And Back AgainAfter my hike, I drove back down to the ski village, picked up my family and we headed back toward Amarillo, leaving the mountains behind.
The next day we spent twelve hours driving back home again. We got held up in traffic between Dallas and Houston due to a tornado that had gone through - crazy weather. When we got home, I opened the door to our house and discovered that it was nearly 90 degrees fahrenheit inside. Our air conditioner had broken while we were away - no place like home I guess.
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Sangre de Cristo Mountains > Wheeler Peak (NM) > Beating the Heat - Wheeler Peak
