billeyler | Hiking Mount Taylor (Reply)

Friday evening, Danny suggested we do some hiking on Sunday, and in particular thought Mount Taylor (an extinct volcano, peak 11,301 feet) would be a nice choice. And indeed it was!

About 12:30, we packed up (mostly water), gassed up ($3.799/gal) and headed over to Grants 72 miles, then another 15 miles on a a winding two lane road up the mountain to forest road 193, a dirt road. It was 5 miles along that road until we got to Trailhead 77, the Gooseberry Spring trail. What a gorgeous day for it, although the wind was forecast to pick up during the afternoon. We didn't really do too much research about this trail, other than it was about 4 miles from the trailhead at 9220 feet to the peak.

Danny at the trailhead:

Snow along the trail:

The first 2 1/2 to 3 miles were under the canopy of ponderosa pines, spruce, and aspen, crossing Gooseberry Spring (just a trickle), encountering small groups of cows here and there (lots of cow dung on the trail), not encountering a soul. The trail was quite comfortable on the feet, mostly covered with cushy pinestraw. It was probably in the 60s, with a nice cool breeze.

Then we came out onto the exposed southwest slope at about 10,300 feet...a grueling 1/2 mile straight up the side of the mountain at a 30 degree grade. I definitely had to stop often, but the higher we went, the more fabulous the views to the south and west. Only using the video feature of the camera could I do the wide vista justice, but here's a snippet as we were climbing:

We had views of the Sandias, the Manzanos, and mountains far to the south of us. It was a crystal clear day. But the winds were definitely picking up.

Finally, we reached the top of that slope, and the trail became a bit more managable, so we sallied forth another couple of hundred yards. We could see the peak up to our left, but by then the winds were 30 to 40mph, and with the wind chill, it was getting a bit too much. I was only in shorts and a light shirt. So we didn't get all the way to the top, but promised ourselves another trip in the future. We probably made it to 10,800 or 10,900 feet.

The trip back down, we only saw one human, a guy a bit older than us on his way up. Hope he made it! Other than that, we nearly made a new friend that I thought was going to follow us down:

Turns out (looking at a hiking book this morning) that we were probably only 1/2 mile or so from the top...but it looked so much further, with snowy-edged switchbacks.

Only took an hour to hustle back down to the car at the trailhead, greeted by the freshly leafing out aspens:

Another 45 minutes back along the dirt road and the mountain highway and we came to exactly what we were looking for in Grants, a tasty Chinese buffet on Santa Fe Street at 2nd Street.

All around, a really delightful day trip! The trip up and back was scenic in itself, with the mesa-lands and the volcanic flow formations all along I-40, with the occasional Indian Pueblo here and there. And of course, the 3 Indian casinos like very out of place Vegas strip truckstops.

Back home by 7:45, showered and ready for our viewing of "Dirty Filthy Love!"