Hello everyone! I will be coming to the Taos area from Dallas to hike Wheeler Peak in the beginning of June. I'm looking at my schedule and am finding an extra day. Is it worth hiking up the ski runs to make it to Kachina Peak? I couldn't find many trip reports of a hike up the ski lifts and over to Kachina. I saw some blog posts about people who took the lifts up and then hiked highline ridge to Kachina. But somehow that seems like cheating. I'm curious to get a locals opinion and appreciate any insight you could provide.

Jason

I think it is worth it. A quick trip and the views are pretty good - don't think the lifts run in June but it's still a quick, scenic hike. Acts as a good acclimatization hike as well. The entire ridge run to Wheeler is pretty fun too - tacks on a few more peaks. I have a TR here:

http://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=11148&parmuser=Monster5&cpgm=tripuser

I lived up at the ski valley for one summer...but it was more than a decade ago. At least at that time the lifts ran on weekend days throughout the summer. I hiked up to Kachina once. The plus to that hike is that under the ski lifts you might find some valuable junk in June (skiers drop things!), and once above the lifts, you'll have solitude. There's at least one old abandoned cabin up there. The minus is that really your views and terrain isn't any nicer than Wheeler Peak. Personally, i'd take the extra day at Taos Pueblo, or hiking along the ridgeline from a different direction, but Kachina is good too.