Wheeler Peak may not be the fairest of them all, but Wheeler is the tallest of all New Mexico peaks at 13,161ft above sea-level. And hence, we walked up it last weekend. It was a gorgeously sunny day but a rather chilly night. We decided to take the longer trail starting from Taos Ski Valley and hiking via Bull of the Woods meadow because it was described as having a very scenic ridge walk. It's also a bit long for Vixen's short legs, so we hiked in 5 miles on Saturday and set up camp at the Middle Fork of the Red River, then continued the last 2 miles or so to the summit on Sunday before hiking out. Backpacking also gave us a chance to camp in a beautiful place, rather than camping at the trailhead in the ski area parking lot.
To orient you... Troy is standing on Frazer Mountain on the way up on Saturday. Our campsite will be in those trees toward the bottom left of the photo. Behind Troy, the tallest-looking peak is Walter. Wheeler is further back and looks shorter.
Our campsite next to the Middle Fork of the Red River. There seemed to be a shorter trail up from Red River here.
A whole herd of big-horn sheep whose horns were not as big as I thought they should be.
That peak behind him is not Wheeler, but Walter.
On the summit.
Beeee-utiful!
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