Wheeler - The Great 48

Wheeler Peak (HP #11)

We arrived in northern New Mexico for the just under 9 mile round trip trek of Wheeler Peak.  We were greeted at the trailhead by a storm of hail to make it our third consecutive day of getting pelted with hail.  We are not easily discouraged... we pulled up our britches and made haste up the mountain.  In fact, we made the summit in 2 hours and 8 minutes, a blazing time.  We were even joined at the top by a family of big horn rams (and yes, there were many SNL jokes about "thats why we come up here").  We shot the summit video (below) and which we mention we were about to get a crazy storm.  We literally ran off the mountain and once lightning popped the countryside extremely close to where we had just entered the treeline.  Made for some excitement!  We were back to the car in 3:30 round trip and ready for Oklahoma by moonlight.