Take a Hike

Both of our boys are Boy Scouts and needed to do some heavy hiking this summer in order to badge.  I had spent one of my college summers in New Mexico and my memories of hiking around the Taos area were tinged a bit (okay, a lot) by the rose colored glasses of time.  So we drove out to New Mexico with the boys and hit the hiking trails around town.  We found a cute "casita" on VRBO that was in town and had two bedrooms and a full kitchen. That was great because we prefer to buy groceries and cook some of our meals (like breakfast) instead of always eating out.  I loved that we could sit out on our balcony in the mornings drinking coffee and enjoying the secluded view.

The first major hike was the Italianos Canyon Trail outside of town.  There are very few markings from the road and you have to park on the side of the highway, then cross the road and start your hike. This is one of the most beautiful and scenic hikes and I had truly forgotten how gorgeous the views are all through the trail.  There is a stream that winds down the mountains and the hiking trail crosses over at least 18 times.  We never saw the end of the trail and continued long past the 3.6 mile marker completely lost.  We finally turned back because it started hailing on us and we weren't prepared for how cold the hailing rain would be!  We did however, log almost 9 miles round-trip.

Sunlgasses: Lucky Brand; Tank: Old Navy; Crop Leggings: Hard Tail; Sneakers: Asics

A view of the stream on the Italianos Trail.

Mr. Fantastic crosses the stream.

The next day we headed to Abiquiu, New Mexico to Ghost Ranch and did an easy 3 mile round trip hike up to Chimney Rock.  It was fun to show the boys some of what I remembered, like the Yucca plants, and where the sedimentary rocks show the different time periods, and even a bee pollinating a cactus flower!  Since it wasn't raining and it was a fairly quick trail, we made it to the top and were able to see the spectacular views.

Sunglasses: Lucky Brand; Tank: LuluLemon No Limit Tank; Crop Leggings c/o GapFit gFast capris; Sneakers: Asics

The awesome view from the top of Chimney Rock. That is Georgia O'Keefe's house to the left of our heads.

The last hike was to Wheeler Peak and while I was initially going to go with the boys, I was so sore from the previous hikes that I decided to stay home.  Since that one is an 8 mile hike up and the most important one for them, I didn't want to hold them back.  They were really proud of themselves for reaching the peak and I was happy that now all of us have happy memories of New Mexico.  We are even thinking of going back this winter to try to ski around the Angel Fire area.

Do you hike? What are your favorite trails?