Life with the Mountain Girls: Lobo Peak

For the holiday weekend, we headed up to Taos to hike Lobo Peak. We chose the Manzanita Trail which is only 5 miles to the peak but is the steepest trail in the canyon. Portions of the trail climb at a 45-degree grade, as the trail carves straight up the mountain. The elevation gain from the trailhead to the peak is almost 4,000 ft, so lil sis stayed home with her human grandpawrents.

Just look at that little pouting face! Next time, lil sis!

The morning we headed up the trail was cool and overcasted - my favorite hiking weather! The clouds were rolling past us, providing shade from the sun, but never threatened rain or thunder, so we hiked onwards to the peak.

This summer monsoon rains have brought wonder to the mountains - the forest is so fresh and lush! Some of the trees, especially the aspens, are just beginning to turn golden, while the rest of forest woodlands hold every color of green imaginable. The beginning of the hike was just stunning, and such a happy place for my nose to take in all the wonderful smells of the forest ground.

The beginning of the trail also follows along the Rio Hondo, as it winds its way down the mountain. The stream was fresh and crisp and contains lots of tiny minnows. There's nothing like playing in the cool mountain stream water and getting super muddy!

Hey, little fishy, where'd you go?!

After enjoying the gradual trail climbing slowly beside the stream, we began the steep climb to the mountaintop. Here the terrain and forest timber began to change to high mountain alpine. The trail became more rocky, and we began to climb high above the mountain stream. The climb was challenging but nothing my legs can't handle! Plus, there were so many wonderful smells...

Squirrel!... and lots of exciting critters to chase.

Any lizards up here in the rock field? I had to scout it out!

As we continued to climb, the course of our trail became more clear as the trail climbed above the pine trees. Below is our first view of our destination: Lobo Peak. It may not look it, but we still have a ways to go with a steep final ascent!

But the rocky, steep trail is nothing my power legs can't manage! I had to travel back down the trail and check on my human pawrents a few times to make sure they were coming. Sometimes two-legged animals travel so slow!

Slowly, but surely, we made our way to the final ascent with the top of the peak in view.

And then, we made it to the peak! 12,155 feet! Woof, woof!

The views from the peak were breathtaking and totally worth the challenging hike. The clouds were blowing past us so quickly, it was like we were in the sky, on top of the world. From the peak, we could see down into Taos Ski Valley, the town of Taos, and also into Red River valley.