Out of Our Rut Blog Welcome Page

Welcome to the Out of Our Rut blog landing page.

Who we are:

We are a couple of former engineers that lived and worked in the Rochester New York area for over 30 years. When we were laid off from two different companies, one day apart, we took that as a sign to change things up. We had built a beautiful home on 50 acres and loved the place, but with plenty of time on our hands, we began to travel more and realized that when we were on the road for weeks on end, we didn't really miss all the “stuff” we had back home. Plus the work involved with maintaining our home and property seemed to be the only reason we would head back home. That prompted us to get out of our rut and sell 95% of our possessions and our home and move into our 38 foot motorhome and travel the country full time starting in June of 2016.

Chris and Jack Hiking in Washington State

At Pullout Along Rugged Oregon Coast

Our mission:

To explore the country with a strong bias towards outdoor activities. Our passions are hiking and geocaching with some mountain biking on the side. I am an avid photographer. I guess working at Eastman Kodak for 32 years had an influence in that. And while we live in a motorhome and stay in many campgrounds, we really are not campers. We seldom have campfires and don't have a corn hole game. We rarely stay at a campground for its amenities. We pick a place that is near where we want to explore. We think of it more like our home happens to have wheels and can move around. Our desire in these travels is to slow the pace. We didn't want to see if we could get to all the National Parks as quickly as possible. We like to keep a travel day to less than 200 miles and if the place warrants, stay for a week or more.

At Geocaching Headquarters in Seattle for #10,000

The blog:

For friends and family (as well as us) to keep track of what we have been up to, we have created this blog. It chronicles where we've been and what we've done as we wander around the country. Each stop along the way will, at minimum, get mentioned in the blog. Some longer stops in areas we enjoyed may get multiple blog posts in order to give that stop it's due. Generally the blog has lots of photographs as I find it difficult to eliminate photos I like. The blog will talk about the campground to some extent, but it shouldn't be considered a campground review. We seldom seem to exhaust the things we want to explore before we exhaust ourselves and need to move on. That means we may completely skip some activities or places in an area that others may consider essential. We look at that as a reason to come back in the future.

Pretty Sunset in Quartzite Arizona

At the Window in Big Bend National Park

This landing page:

The problem with just about any blog is that fact it is chronological. This is fine since that is how the events occurred in real life. But since our blog is so much about a given location, it can be difficult for somebody to find a specific blog post for a given location. I even find it a challenge to remember when we happened to be at a given location if I wanted to look something up. For instance, if someone asked about Twin Falls Idaho. I know we stayed there but it might take me awhile to figure out that we were there in June of 2017 to get them to the right post. If I could only look at a map of all the places we have stayed and have an easy way to get to the relevant blog post.

Since I already use Google My Maps to keep track of our locations, I have created a special map that has all of our stops since going full time. None of the routes are included in the map since that just seems to clutter it up and don't really add value. By clicking the link below the map, an interactive map with all of our stops will open in another window. This map was improved in 2026 to better accommodate the number of years we have been travelling. The current year will shown at the bottom of the key but all prior years will be shown in a different layer with each year being a different color. If you click one of the years in the key to the left, all the stops from that year are highlighted on the map -  which is a convenient way to show the route that from that year. It is also possible to move around the map and zoom in an area of interest.  Clicking on any pin on the map will pop up the name of the location along with a link to the blog post(s) associated with that stop. Since I am nearly always 2 or more weeks behind in the blog, some of the most recent map points may not have a link to a blog, but they will in time. 

So if you want to see what we found to explore in a given area, this should provide a much easier way to find the blog post.

Click HERE to open interactive Google map

Our Tenth Year of Fulltiming in Review

Wow, we’ve reached a milestone in our fulltime adventures - one decade on the road! I still remember sitting in our home of 16 years in western New York waiting to hear from our real estate attorney to confirm that the closing had gone well and the proceeds would be deposited into our account the following day. We were officially homeless except for the 38 foot motorhome with Jeep in tow. We had spent the previous 9 months or so selling, donating or trashing 95% of our worldly possessions. We had found room in the rig for everything we thought we should bring with us as we start our travels. We had a few boxes of keepsakes to store in family members’ basements in Ohio. The plan was to live in our ~450 square foot “home” and travel the country. There weren’t any real set goals except to experience what other parts of the USA had to offer. We also didn’t really have a timeline in our minds other to enjoy as many places as we can and try to set a pace that actually permits us to get a feel for a location.

In those past 10 years, we have camped 3652 nights at over 450 places. While writing this blog post, I got to thinking, how often do we spend just one night in a place as we passed through an area on our way to a distant destination? Or how often do we spend a couple weeks or months at a place? Well, I have a spreadsheet with all the underlying data and we used to be engineers with analytical skills so we should be able to answer that question.

Turns out, roughly a quarter of our stops are just for one night. That might sound like a lot but it only represents around 3% of our nights camped. This is a big country and when we are repositioning from one part to another, there are times where we are just trying to make distance so we might do a series of one night stops. We try to limit our travel days to 200 miles or less so it’s hard for us to cross the country quickly. About 40% of our stops, we have spent between 2 and 6 nights. This duration of stop might be to simply break up the tedium of driving long distances several days in a row. But it also might be some sort of stop for service on the motorhome that takes a few days before we can continue on. Frequently we will spend a few days to see some areas that have a handful of things we want to see or do but don’t require a longer stay. Our next stop duration is between 1 and 2 weeks which covers another quarter of our stops. These are places that we felt justified spending some time to explore. Often we wish we could have stayed even longer but maybe it was a state park that often has a 2 week maximum stay limit. There were a few times where we overestimated what there was to do from a stop and wish we had reduced the time spent there but those are fairly infrequent. We are pretty good at finding things to do.

I next broke the stop duration into longer stops with the following categories: 2 to 4 weeks, 1 to 2 months, and 2 or more months. These represent a smaller percentage of our stops but account for a just over half of our nights. For the longest duration stay of 2 or more months, we had 11 stops that equals roughly one third of our nights. Just over half of these were at a winter destination in either Florida or Arizona. But 5 of those longer stops occurred during the summer travel season. A couple of those were “forced” upon us when COVID messed up everyone’s travels but some were planned to take advantage of visiting friends and sights back in western New York or exploring the mountains of western North Carolina. We feel we have done a reasonable job of slowing the travel pace when it makes sense and moving somewhat faster when needed.

Below is the travel map from year 10. As you can see, we have pretty good range both north to south and east to west. I am including a link below the map that will actually open up the underlying Google Map I used to document our journey. This will permit you to zoom and scroll around. Plus clicking on a pin for any location will open a popup window with link to any blog post written for that stop.

Click Here to Bring Up Interactive Map of 10th Year Travels

It’s clear from the map that we have done a pretty good job of covering the country north to south and east to west. We started out year 10 in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan having just completed a 2 week Habitat for Humanity build in Marquette. We had headed to the far western side of the UP and spent about 2 weeks exploring before heading south into Wisconsin. The two weeks we spent camped there was mostly spent in Oshkosh at the annual air show. That stop rates near the top of our list, not just in the past 12 months but in the past 10 years. It ranks right up there with the Albuquerque balloon fiesta or the Lake Havasu fireworks festival. From here we headed into the Minnesota for around 5 weeks exploring the Twin Cities and some of the beautiful state parks in the northern portion of the state. Then we headed into eastern North Dakota for a week or so to experience some of the best geocaching we have seen in Gilby.

We then headed back into Minnesota to visit the North Shore before entering Wisconsin to check out the Apostle Islands on the northern side of the state. In central Wisconsin we got to get up close and personal with a cranberry harvest. The next 4 weeks was spent with short stops in Iowa, Illinois and Indiana and longer stays in Tennessee and Georgia before making it back to The Great Outdoors in Titusville Florida. After nearly 6 months of sitting still, we were ready to start traveling again as spring approached. After completing a couple of motorhome repairs in western Florida and South Carolina, we were ready to start our travels west. Mainly following I-40 through Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the northern panhandle of Texas taking 3 weeks to get to New Mexico. Here we plan to explore the mountains in the northern portion of the state with 2 weeks in Taos, 1 week in Los Alamos and as I write this post at the beginning of 2 weeks in Santa Fe.

Like in the past, I’m including the “heat maps” that help to show how long we have stayed in the various states. No real surprise that Florida is the “winner” again but we did camp in 16 different states the past 12 months. We finally added Oklahoma to our list as full time travelers. The second map shows a similar map but for the full 10 years. At this point we are up to 46 states. We have camped in 3 of the 4 remaining states but New Jersey and Delaware were from a little before going fulltime in 2015 and we have camped in a rental RV in Alaska way back in 1995! One last heat map is showing all 10 years but this time broken down into the county level to better see what parts of the states we have camped in.

Heat Map for Year #10

Heat Map from 10 Years of Fulltime

Same As Above but Broken Down to County Level

Of course I have the table that helps show what it costs to live this lifestyle. It doesn’t include costs that we would have if we lived a “normal” life in a sticks and bricks home. So healthcare, groceries, dining out and other entertainment isn’t part of the table. But it does show how many stops we had, the number of miles on both the motorhome and the Jeep as well as the fuel for each. It’s clear there has been an uptick in both the number of stops and the miles driven in the motorhome. This is simply a function of the route and pace we picked. Other than our extended stay at TGO, we have only had 10 stops where we spent more than 7 nights. To some extent our travel plans built in the pace that led to the faster pace and higher miles.

Condensed Stats for Last 6 Years

The other line item in the table is the amount we spent for camping. This year wasn’t our highest year but it does come in second place. Since we have 10 years of data, I was curious what a plot of average dollars per night looks like over the decade. The chart below shows that data with the blue line. It’s clear that there is a fair amount of year to year variability but I also noticed that there is a definite upward trend in the costs over time. The red line represents the trend of the raw data and it obviously is increasing. Since we haven’t changed our camping style to higher end RV resorts versus state parks or Elks Lodges like we typically like to stay at, I can only assume the slope is a function of inflation over time. The good news is the slope of the line represents 63 cents per day increase each year. That increase equates to $230 more spent camping each year so I’m not too concerned that it will have any bearing on how or where we camp.

Graph Showing Average Cost per Night to Camp for 10 Years
Blue Line Average Data, Red is Linear Trendline

Like years past, we like to use our anniversary blog posts to highlight our favorite hikes or bike rides of the past 12 months. I was initially concerned there really wouldn’t be many. It’s not like we had traveled to Glacier National Park, the Adirondacks, the Green Mountain of Vermont or other classic “hiking” destinations. But after going through the past blog posts as well as my notes from places we’ve more recently visited that don’t yet have a post written, I was pleasantly surprised and fondly remembered quite a few hikes and bike rides that made the cut. For each hike I will give a brief description of the hike, a favorite photo from it and a link to the blog post which will describe it in more detail. In chronological order here are the top 8 hikes and bike rides from year 10.

• Escarpment Trail - Ontonagon MI

Situated in the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park of far western Upper Peninsula of Michigan, this park is beautiful and this trail was the best of several we tried in the area. AllTrails lists this as an 8.2 mile out and back hike with over 1600 feet of elevation gain. the trail follows a ridge that overlooks the wonderful Lake of the Clouds and the Carp River. There are several named peaks along the ridge with lots of rock outcroppings to take in the scenic valley below. The last section of the trail drops 400 feet through the woods and we suspected it wouldn't be nearly as scenic so by skipping this we keep it to 6.5 miles and 1360 feet elevation gain.

Blog post with Escarpment Trail Hike

View Along Escarpment Trail in Porcupine Mountains

• Bean and Bear Loop Trail - Silver Bay MN

The North Shore of Minnesota along Lake Superior has a lot to offer outdoor enthusiasts. Bean and Bear Loop Trail is a 7 mile long hike with just over 1000 feet of elevation gain. The trail goes 2 miles before hitting the loop portion of the hike. In another mile, you have reached the first of the two lakes. Since we took the loop clockwise, Bean Lake was first. There are beautiful views all along the ridge overlooking the lakes. We had the start of autumn colors but I suspect spring wildflowers would be nice too. 

Blog post with Bean and Bear Loop Trail Hike

 

Bear and Bean Lakes Lined Up

• Lakeshore Trail - Cornucopia WI

Part of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, this trail follows the rugged shoreline of northern Wisconsin along Lake Superior but from 70 feet above the water. The constant churn of the lake has eroded many sea caves all along the cliff wall. With the curves in the shoreline, there are many opportunities to look below and see the caves. The trail is an out and back that starts at Meyers Beach (where parking is somewhat limited) and goes for 5.4 miles to a primitive campsite. The last sea cave viewpoint is about 2 miles out and is well worth hiking that far. We continued nearly 2 miles beyond that and found the trail to be okay, but nothing special. Other more unique options to see the caves is by kayak or even hiking on the frozen lake in the dead of winter.

Blog post with Lakeshore Trail Hike

Sea Caves Along Lakeshore Trail

• Beach Bike Ride - New Smyrna Beach FL

The town of New Smyrna Beach is right along the Atlantic Ocean in central Florida. While not technically a trail per se, there is a 5 mile stretch of beach where cars are permitted to drive the sand. It would be possible to bike on the car "lanes" but the sand is much firmer for bikes on the ocean side of the vehicles. You must pay attention to the tide to successfully bike here but the morning we went, we had low tide, light winds and cool but sunny conditions. To the south we found the beach was bikeable even beyond the car permissible area - but e-bikes are not permitted beyond there. We went until the sand became too soft to easily ride. Back to the north and beyond our starting point is Smyrna Dunes Park. Bikes are not permitted on the long boardwalk in the park but worth a look. In total, we managed a 16 mile bike ride that was quite unique.

Blog post with bike ride along beach

Ponce Inlet Lighthouse

• Rock Garden Trail - Palo Duro Canyon SP Canyon TX

About a hour hour southeast of Amarillo, Palo Duro Canyon is an incredible place in the otherwise barren landscape that makes up this area of north Texas. There are other more popular and strenuous trails here that likely would have been even better than Rock Garden, but we were there during an early heat wave and this trail seemed to be a safer choice for the one day we had available. We only went as far as needed to get to some excellent overlooks on the Rock Garden Trail - which is about 1.5 miles up the trail. We modified the return hike to come across the Lower Comanche Trail to the Mesquite Campground and then back along the Cottonwood Trail to the parking area making a 5.3 mile loop with just over 1000 feet elevation. By getting a very early start we finished around noon with a temperature of 88 degrees. Whether it is this trail or the more popular Lighthouse Trail, Palo Duro Canyon is well worth a visit.

Blog post with Rock Garden Hike

View of Palo Duro Canyon from Rock Garden Trail

• Cebello Mesa Trail - Taos NM

Taos has a wide variety of hiking trails. Two of them made our list of favorites but they couldn't be more different. Cebello Mesa Trail is north of town along the Rio Grande River. It drops 700 feet in the first mile as it works down toward the bottom of the canyon and near water level. Once past all the switchbacks, the trail is relatively flat as it continues upstream for another 3 miles or so. There are several back country primitive camping sites along the way. It definitely has a desert like feel with all the prickly pear cactus in bloom. We made it out 2.7 miles to the second camping area. While eating lunch at the shelter we realized a storm was rolling in from the north. We decide to error on the side of caution and head back since the climb back up the side of the canyon would be a tough one. We made it back to the car just as it started to sprinkle. Beautiful area and trail, just be careful of the unpredictable New Mexico weather.

Blog post with Cebello Mesa Trail hike

Heading Down to Rio Grande River

• Williams Lake Trail - Taos NM

This trail starts at Taos Ski Valley in the mountains northeast of town. One of the more popular trails in the area, this 4 mile out and back trail gains 1000 feet in elevation which wouldn't be too bad but it starts at just over 10,200 feet. Roughly 4500 feet higher in elevation than Cebello Mesa makes a huge difference in the landscape and vegetation - not to mention the impact on our breathing. Maybe it's just the views are breathtaking? The grade of the trail is fairly consistent the whole way up to the pretty alpine lake. There was still some snow on the surrounding peaks and if you venture beyond the lake, you will treat yourself to a nice waterfall. Better yet, there is a German restaurant near the trailhead and ski lift to treat ourselves to lunch and a beer after a 4.9 mile, 1300 foot elevation gain hike. 

Blog post not written yet

 

Williams Lake

• Bayo Canyon Trail - Los Alamos NM

Los Alamos is quite the unusual town. Sitting up on a high mesa, there are multiple canyons carved in the area all around town. Bayo Canyon Trail is a loop that follows one of these canyons on the north side of town. The 4 mile loop has about 500 feet of elevation gain and being in the vicinity of 7000 feet, it isn't too strenuous. It was unreal how you start near a busy roundabout in town and after a half mile you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere except for the expensive homes perched on the top of the canyon walls. We follow the loop in a counterclockwise direction which starts with a gradual decline into the canyon. As we get further into the canyon, it is a bit confusing because the other side (the return trail) is only about 1000 feet away but across a 250 foot canyon. For a while it isn't at all clear how we will get over there. The solution was clear once we made it to the canyon floor at a point where it has widened up a bit. We cross the valley and find the one challenging part of the trail - coming back up over 300 feet in just over a third of a mile. We have to take the spur trail out to the viewpoint of the canyon. It only adds a quarter mile or so to the total hike and is worth the view. The return trail is a much wider path and from this vantage point we can easily see the trail we came out on. Incredible to such a remote feeling hike in a town.

Blog post not written yet

View Over Bayo Canyon

Below is the map that shows all 450+ stops in the past 10 years. Clicking on the link provided below the map will bring up the Google Map that permits you to zoom and pan around to get a closer view of a location you might be interested in. I had recently run into a limitation with how Google Maps functions and needed to completely rework how the map data is presented. As it turns out, the new format is actually much more user friendly. Each calendar year has its own color. If you hover the cursor over any of the years, those stops for the year will be highlighted showing what our general route was. For stops in the current year, the stops are still shown as individual blue dots. Clicking on any of the pins will open a popup window with the name of the stop, what year and a link to the blog post(s) written for that location. If you aren’t familiar with our blog posts, think of them as more of a what there is to see and do in an area but not as a campground review. A post may mention the campground but generally my writing is geared toward hiking, biking and general sightseeing in an area. If you enjoy hiking, biking or geocaching, these blog posts might be worth a look. I also generally tend to take lots of photos (working 32 years at Eastman Kodak has something to do with that!) and often will have plenty of pictures to help you experience an area like we did and maybe will even convince you that place is worth a visit.

Click Here to Open Interactive Google Map of All Stops

Taos Conclusion

Map of this blog's locations click this link to open the map

With only 4 full days left in Taos New Mexico, we still had a few things to squeeze in. We had visited Amole Canyon a few days ago and hiked the South Loop Trail. This was the only interesting trail we had seen on AllTrails, but when we started that hike, we checked out the map of the trails in the parking lot and realized there were a lot more trail options here. After doing a bit more research, we came up with a 6 mile loop that uses several of the trails and forest roads within the park. Since the hike was a hodgepodge of other trails, I used a website I frequently go to for mapping  - CalTopo.com. I only use the free version, but it permits me to plan a more complicated route, figure out distance and elevation, and then export the trail so I can put it on my Garmin handheld GPS. That way when we get to trail intersections, we know which way we should turn. I’ll admit there are times that even with the map on the Garmin, we might misinterpret which cross trail to take, but I usually will figure that out after just a few hundred feet of taking the wrong trail instead of a mile later! I am including a screenshot of this hike as an example in case other hikers (or mountain bikers) find it useful. The purple line is the route and the graph below shows the elevation profile. Since this hike is a loop, we could go either direction but the elevation profile helps us decide to go in a counterclockwise direction which will mean the first 2 miles will be all uphill - nearly 900 feet up. But the remaining 4 miles will be relatively flat or downhill.

Trail Planning Map with CalTopo.com

It’s about a 40 minute drive from camp and we manage to get to the trailhead by 9:45. It’s supposed to be a warm day but the good news is the hike goes between an elevation of 8300 and 9200 feet, so it should be cooler up here. Forest Road 182 is gated and doesn’t seem to be used by vehicles very often just from the condition of the road. It was fine for hiking but I’m not sure I would want to drive it.

Beginning of FR 182

Decent Hiking Trail

It was good to have the map to confirm where to turn, by the time we completed the climbing portion of the hike, we started to get some distance views.

Rocky Mountain Penstemon

Nice View

There were a few more stretches of “road” to hike on and these seemed to possible receive some vehicle but likely just ATVs.

ATV Trail?

Another Distance View

Around the 3.2 mile mark, we were well into our gentle downhill part of the hike. We spotted a car parked just off the trail where we weren’t really expecting one. It turns out there is another road that comes up to this part of the park. As we head into a broad valley, we find a rock to sit on in the shade and eat our lunch. Just after finishing, a woman on horseback is coming up the hill. She sees us and dismounts saying that this horse is a little skittish around strangers and didn’t want to risk an issue. The horse was a thing of beauty. Its mane and tail were intricately braided. The woman joked that she spends more time on her horse’s hair than her own. Just after passing the horse, we spotted a mountain biker coming down the hill. He stops and walks his bike past the horse. It was kind of strange that we had hiked over 3 miles and saw no one and now we practically have a traffic jam on the trail!

Fancy Horse

It was a pretty section of the hike. At one point our trail took a left hand turn, even though the obvious trail was straight ahead. It turned out that we were coming up to a bit of a wash and there is a trail on either side. Most of the time we could see the other trail across the currently dry creek bed. And when our trail veered away from the other trail, we needed to cross over the wash to get back on the Amole Trail that will lead us back to the car. My Apple Watch had the hike at 5.75 miles and 1174 feet of elevation gain. A bit different than what CalTopo predicted but within reason.

Meadow Section of Loop

The next day we take a break from hiking and head to Taos Pueblo. This is the home to one of the many Native American communities in the area. The heart of the village is about 10 acres and consists of several dozen buildings. The community has opened up their village for visitors to explore and shop some of the local artisans.

North House with Mountains in Background

After paying your fee at the visitor center, you are welcome to wander around the pueblo on your own. There are signs to keep visitors out of areas that aren’t open to the public but there are also plenty of buildings with open signs to explore the various pottery, jewelry, rugs and other crafts made by the community members. They offer guided tours every half hour or so and it is definitely a much better way to learn about the history of Taos Pueblo. Tours begin in front of the church. Pictures are not permitted within the church so you’ll have to visit yourself to see how beautiful it is.

Our Tour Guide Waits at Church

Church Stained Glass (Outside)

The tour guides typically are college age students that are community members. Our guide took us to various parts of the village and explained all about the history - this pueblo has been occupied by the people for well over 1000 years. It sounds like only a half dozen people currently reside in the village - most others live in more conventional homes in the surrounding neighborhoods.

A Horno - Outdoor Adobe Oven

The adobe construction was very interesting. We’ve seen this in downtown Taos but hadn’t really gotten a chance to see it up close. It sounds like it requires annual maintenance to keep it watertight. There was one building that looked to have been hit by a car which gave us a better sense of how the walls are constructed.

Close Up of Adobe

Part of the history includes the Spanish explorers from the mid 1500’s. Over the next 100 years, Spanish missionaries forced Catholicism onto the native people as well as forced them to construct churches. The remains of one such church sits on one side of the village. Saint Jerome Church was built in 1619 and was bombed by the US Cavalry in 1847. A cemetery sits next to the remains of the church.

Cemetery with Church Ruins

Closeup of Church Ruins

None of the homes in the village has electricity or even running water. The water source is from the Red Willow Creek which runs through the village coming from the nearby mountains.

Red Willow Creek

Another Tour Group

Another Church Picture

After the tour was over, we wander around on our own. There are quite a few buildings turned into shops. Some are very small one room buildings that can barely hold 3 visitors and the artist. While other buildings have multiple rooms and take a long time to wander through. We didn’t find anything we had to have other than a vendor with some homemade cookies that looked pretty good.

One Shop Entrance

Some Ever Present Ristras Found in NM

The large building called the North House was the most impressive sight being 5 stories high. We spent close to 2 hours total exploring Taos Pueblo and found it very interesting.

Parting Shot from Taos Pueblo

We wanted to get in one more good hike while in the Taos area. We had heard that the Williams Lake Trail was an excellent hike. It’s listed as a 3.8 mile, out and back hike with 1000 feet of elevation gain.  Which doesn’t sound too bad until you realize it starts at just over 10,000 feet and tops out at 11,245 feet - so the oxygen levels might be a bit lower than we’re used to. The trail starts in Taos Ski Valley. Which is a bit of a misnomer given the drive from camp will bring us up over 3000 feet in the 17 miles it takes to get there. It was definitely a pretty drive and much cooler once we made it to the parking area for the trailhead. The main parking lot was full, so we needed to find the overflow lot and then it turns out that it’s 0.4 miles from our car to the listed trailhead. So our hike will now be closer to 4.5 miles.

Homes Above Tais Ski Valley

Just a Bit of Snow Remains on the Peaks

We head past one of the ski lifts and find the trail for Williams Lake as well as Wheeler Peak - New Mexico’s highest mountain at 13,167 feet! The trail starts out with a section of numerous wildflowers in bloom that made it quite enjoyable.

Ski Lift Opens Tomorrow for Downhill Biking

Colorado's State Flower - Blue Columbine

Alpine Shooting Star

The trail was steep and rocky at points. We had one geocache just off the main trail fairly early in the hike.

Rocky Trail

A Columbine Variation

Nice Mountain View

There was another section that must have experienced some sort of high wind event since there were a lot of downed trees next to the trail, only cut enough for hikers to get by. As we climbed, the views got even better.

Lots of Trees Down

Trail Next to Rock Slide

Almost to Williams Lake

About 1.25 miles into the hike, we see the turn for Wheeler Summit. We heard this is a beautiful hike as well but a little more than we are up for at more than 8 miles and close to an elevation gain of 3,000 feet. We don’t have any snow left on our trail, but it’s clear there are some large patches of snow in the mountains that surround the lake. We had come upon quite a few hikers on our trip so it wasn’t too surprising to see many people enjoying Williams Lake. There were even a handful of tents setup nearby.

Williams Lake Below

Of course, we couldn’t just stop and enjoy the moment - there is a geocache hidden a few hundred yards beyond the lake. There didn’t appear to be any people in that direction so we decide to continue towards it and have our lunch in the relative solitude of the hiding spot. There does appear to be a trail that circles the edge of the lake, but that only gets us so far. The bulk of the walk to ground zero is through a boulder field. We slowly and cautiously worked our way to the cache. The upside was there were an amazing number of wildflowers growing in the shelter provided by the rocks.

Chris Boulder Hops Near Geocache

Clump of Columbine

The cache had been found by someone else several weeks ago, so we know it survived the winter. But we searched for 20 minutes without any luck. It was tricky simply because the area is so rocky that walking around is a challenge plus there are so many places to hide a container. We decided to stop and have a snack hoping the nourishment will improve our eyesight and cognitive abilities! Plus it gave me a chance to take pictures of other flowers.

King's Crown

When we finished eating, we resumed our search. In less than 5 minutes, Chris had found it. I’m sure I had been just feet from that spot earlier but didn’t see it. We weren’t looking forward to the hike back across the boulders to the lake but we had seen and heard a waterfall a bit further to the south. It looked like the path through the boulder field was shorter in that direction so we head that way. We made it to the base of the falls and could see that there was even a taller waterfall just beyond us. There were a few other people that had found a way up to the top, but I looked at the route and decided it would be a bad idea to try the climb since I would be required to come back down afterwards.

Smaller Cascade

More Falls Up Higher

Slow Exposure Blur

There were many wildflowers along the back of the stream and we figured the water must be running into Williams Lake. So we follow the stream, bypass the boulder field completely and make our way back to the southern edge of the lake.

Parry's Primrose Along Stream

A Singular Columbine

Stream Comes Into Williams Lake

We were thinking of going around the eastern edge of the lake so we could say we walked around the lake, but there looked to be a substantial rock ledge that possibly was going to be a challenge. We took the known and easy route back past the tents and onto the trail. It definitely is a beautiful area up here.

Questionable Rock Ledge on Eastern Side of Lake

Wheeler Peak Looms Over Us

We made it back down the trail without incident. We had a bit of a mission driving us. Chris had discovered that there is a German restaurant right near the ski lift we had walked past earlier. We figured after a 5 mile hike with 1300 feet of elevation we deserved a nice meal. It was about 2 PM by now so we’ll call it a late lunch. There were a large number of others enjoying a meal here and many of them looked to be others hikers we had seen somewhere along the trail.

Bavarian Inn for Lunch

We still had the walk back to the car after eating a big meal and the feet definitely were not happy but we made it to the car and drove the long winding road back to camp. What a great hike to end our stay in Taos for 2 weeks. We have one more day but this hike prompted us to take our last day off and relax before packing up to drive to Los Alamos NM.