On The Trail With Auntie Elk

  • A wide mountain basin opens beneath a blue sky streaked with white clouds. A rust-colored scree slope fills the right foreground, dropping toward dark evergreen forest, green alpine meadows, rocky ridges, and small patches of lingering snow.
    FREEDOM is a three-night backpacking quest to summit the four highest peaks in the Taos Mountain Range, New Mexico.
  • A narrow dirt trail climbs across a steep green mountainside scattered with yellow wildflowers. Dark spruce-fir forest lines the slope below a rocky ridge and a bright blue sky brushed with thin white clouds.
    DAY 1: The trail begins at the end of Forest Road 58 at 9, 700 feet above sea level. We climb through spruce forest and summer wildflowers toward Lost Lake.
  • A Rocky Mountain bristlecone pine fills the foreground. The needles grown in dense groups all the way around the branches like the puffed-up tail of a cat. The branches are also laden with male pollen cones at peak maturity. Here, a mixed-conifer forest,steep rocky slopes, and a small alpine lake live under a deep blue sky.
    5-miles and an 1800-foot elevation bounce later, the Lost Lake Welcoming Committee greeted us on the outskirts of their subalpine lake. A robust family of spruce gather in the darker forest, while a Rocky Mountain bristlecone pine endures the open, rocky edge.
  • A dog wearing a bright red pack stands on a pale fallen log at the edge of Lost Lake. Clear shallow water, scattered rocks, dark conifers, green alpine slopes, and small snow patches rise behind them under a streaked blue sky.
    LOST LAKE – ELEVATION: 11,500 – NIGHT 1: A thin “proprietary ultralight nylon double ripstop, mixed denier fabric” was all that protected us from wind, thunder, rain, and hail. Over and over, the wind blasted, then silence.
  • Two dogs stand on a rocky trail in morning sun, with dark spruce trees rising behind them. One tan dog looks off camera while a darker dog stands partly in shadow, caught in warm lens flare.
    After a long and terrifying night, the sun rose. I made a cup of steaming coffee. Then the dogs and I walked down to Lost Lake.
  • As the sun rises, Lost Lake is still and silent below steep green slopes and rocky cliffs under a cloudless deep blue sky. One Two Three A conifer forest frames the left shore, scattered stones sit in the shallow water, and a bleached fallen branch curves across the foreground.
    SILENCE had won.
  • A black dog wearing a bright red pack stands in a shallow rocky stream on a steep green trail. A hiker and a tan dog climb ahead through dense wild plants, with dark spruce-fir forest dropping away below.
    Day 2 is a next level 1.8-mile hike, 500-foot bounce to the very edge of the subalpine.
  • A steep alpine slope rises under a vivid blue sky, with a trail cutting through loose gray scree and green patches of grass. Dark conifers cling to the left ridge while yellow wildflowers dot the rocky ground.
    As we left Lost Lake behind, a bighorn sheep ran by — not pictured, but feel free to use your imagination.
  • From above, Horseshoe Lake curves around a small green and yellow peninsula below pale alpine ridges. Krummholz conifers fill the foreground, as the land flows downward.
    Welcome to the farthest edge of the subalpine! Here the trees are shaped by wind, cold, heat, snow, and a brutally short growing season. On the north side of HORSESHOE LAKE, there is a peninsula between the west and east inlets.
  • A tan dog trots through dry alpine grass on a narrow path on the peninsula of Horseshoe Lake. Krummholz conifers and rocky green slopes surround the lake, with blue water visible behind the dog.
    At almost 12,000 feet above sea level, the peninsula will be home for the next two nights.
  • A dog in a bright red pack steps across rocks and weathered logs beside a clear alpine inlet. Ahead, a tan dog stands on the trail as green slopes, scree, small conifers, and a slice of lake rise toward a deep blue sky.
    Jackson and Ember were ready to summit, but we set up camp instead.
  • West Inlet of Horseshoe Lake lies still beneath a wide bowl of green alpine slopes, gray scree, rocky ridges, and lingering snow patches. Low shrubs and grasses fill the foreground under a vast, saturated blue sky with a few wispy clouds.
    Tonight, we were the only humans to inhabit the lake and a sense of otherworldliness flourished in the solitude. Tomorrow will be SUMMIT DAY.
  • Morning light spreads across steep alpine slopes above Horseshoe Lake, New Mexico. A looming mountain shadow cuts across the water and lower basin, while golden ridges, green patches, snow remnants, and wispy clouds reflect in the still surface.
    DAY 3 – SUMMIT DAY: As the sun rose, the serpent’s head cast a shadow over the tranquil lake and my stomach roiled. Then, I walked across the bridge of rocks and weathered logs.
  • High in the Taos mountain range, I am reminded that 4 ½ billion years ago, the molten Earth began to solidify and water began to accumulate.
    My summit quest begun, I staggered up the serpent’s head…
  • A narrow rocky trail cuts across a steep alpine slope of grasses, small wildflowers, and scattered stones. Dark ridges drop away to the left while a rounded green mountain rises on the right beneath a vivid blue sky and wispy clouds.
    … and stumbled across her segments. Here in alpine country, I was lagging far behind because I could not breathe. At any moment, I might have thrown up.
  • A bird gliding over a vast alpine basin that spreads below a rocky ridge under a deep blue sky filled with white wind-stretched clouds. Brown-green tundra slopes roll toward a dark conifer forest and distant mountains.
    At 13,000+ feet, the primal beauty of the place was worth any physical discomfort in being there. THE SERPENT lay before me: her hair a fancy flowing forest of trees, while her segments live where trees cannot …
  • A rocky alpine trail follows a rounded ridge toward a shadowed summit under a bright sun. Golden tundra slopes fall away on both sides, with layered blue mountains and thin white clouds stretching across the horizon.
    … and the tip of her tail is the second-highest summit in the Taos Mountain massif.
  • From a high rocky slope, yellow alpine wildflowers bloom among loose stones above a Horseshoe Lake. A dark forest, distant valleys, and hazy blue mountains stretch beneath a bright sky streaked with white cloud.
    THE VIEW FROM THE SERPENT’S TAIL – Horseshoe Lake East Inlet PEAK #2, ELEVATION: 13,141
  • A narrow rocky trail zigzags toward the highest peak in New Mexico: a rounded summit of broken stone and sparse alpine grass. Yellow wildflowers bloom beside the path. In the distance steep gray ridges with isolated snow patches endure beneath the blue sky.
    I have summitted the HIGHEST PEAK in New Mexico many times. You can do it as a day trip. I’ve seen men in pink bedazzled cowboy hats and men who summit and immediately launch into pushups. Today we were the first to summit. The second was a solitary, and very elderly woman.
  • A hiker and his dogs walk along a narrow rocky trail cut into a steep alpine slope. Pink wildflowers and loose stones line the path, while beyond lies a jagged mountain ridge.
    Our quest continued on a little used trail.
  • A narrow gravel trail fades into the distant alpine ridge. Boulders and loose scree are taking over. Nonetheless, there are small grasses and even some yellow wildflowers that continue to flourish here at the top of our world.
    As the trail slithers and slides, the balance between the plant kingdom, soil formation, erosion, and weather begins to break down.
  • Jagged boulders gradually erode as the trail traverses a narrow alpine ridge.
    Eventually, the trail turned into a jagged razor’s edge, with the mighty mountain crashing downwards on both sides.
  • A steep sunlit slope of loose alpine rock rises toward wispy clouds in a bright blue sky. Small grasses and tiny yellow wildflowers grow between the stones, with bright lens flare spilling down from the high sun.
    PEAK #3, ELEVATION: 13,113 When we made the summit, we sprawled upon the alpine tundra and dissolved into the sacred land.
  • A black dog trots toward the camera across a high alpine ridge: a rock in her mouth, tail raised and ears forward. The serpent lurks in the distance while even further, hazy mountains and long white clouds stretch beneath a deep blue sky.
    All of us except for Ember. Ember was still chasing rocks.
  • A hiker, two dogs, and the shadow of another hiker walk across an alpine summit ridge. The trail is rocky, but plant life still flourishes. In the distance, steep slopes of the Southern Rocky Mountains lay beneath a deep blue sky. Wind swept clouds rush by.
    After a peanut butter bagel and corn nuts, we were back on the trail. One more peak.
  • A rocky alpine ridge curves across the foreground toward a chain of rounded high peaks under a deep blue sky. Steep green and brown slopes fall into a wide basin below, with dark forest, distant blue mountains, and scattered white clouds beyond.
    Today’s journey will summit the four highest peaks in the Taos Mountain Range. Every summit is “officially” named after a man. As a woman, that is alienating and rude. And besides, it was more fun to imagine I had conquered THE SERPENT. However, PEAK #4…
  • A plaque rests among pink and gray summit rocks, with blurred alpine peaks and blue distance behind it. The inscription names Simpson Peak in memory of Charles Everson Simpson, a U.S. Forest Service ranger who died in the World War on October 3, 1917.
    There was an engraved plaque on the summit. The plaque had been sitting on the mountain top for so long that World War One was known only as the World War. It makes me wonder, if war is the solution, why is there still war?
  • A hiker and two dogs pause on a narrow alpine trail cut across a steep grassy slope. A broad rounded peak fills the right side of the view, while distant mountain ridges, a small snow patch, and bright clouds sit under a deep blue sky.
    It had been an utterly exhausting day, but it feels good to do hard stuff. With the sun pulsing overhead, we finally began our descent.
  • A rocky downhill trail drops through orange and gray scree toward Horseshoe Lake far below. A dark conifer forest fills the middle distance, with rounded alpine slopes, broad valleys, and layered blue mountains stretching to the horizon.
    We skid down the Serpent, back to Horseshoe Lake, where breathing was easier and there were trees – however stunted and deformed.
  • Horseshoe Lake curves through a high alpine basin below steep green and gray slopes. A small peninsula reaches into the dark blue water, with low shrubs, lingering snow, scree fields, a rocky trail, and dark conifers under a clear summer sky.
    HORSESHOE LAKE, ELEVATION: 11,980 – TAOS MOUNTAIN RANGE – AUGUST 10, 2023
  • Low, dense krummholz conifers fill the foreground below a large white cloud. Behind them, steep green and gray slopes curve around Horseshoe Lake, with patches of scree and lingering snow.
    The trees here may be stunted and deformed, but on the peninsula, they have grown tall enough for a human to crawl inside. In the shade of their malformed limbs we find safe haven from the unrelenting sun and wait for darkness to descend.