Holes and Hills - Wheeler NM

(May 31, 2006) A hole in the ground, it goes down into the earth to 1950s rebirth. The cafeteria is strange and reminds one of movies and hiding from fallout. It was closed mostly, as when in use it heated the cavern too much. So now it is tacky "futuristic" decor with vending machine cuisine. (We did not take the picture of the cafeteria.) The natural formations were much more beautiful than the man-made ones.






From there we traveled to Rockhound state park and paid to dig in the dirt and smash our hands with hammers. The park is especially known for its thunder eggs, but we mostly found perlite and a giant sparkly purple rock that Tiffanee made me carry out. It was exactly the same as all the other sparkly purple rocks that littered the area, but Tiffanee liked "that one". (It is legal to remove rocks from this park, unlike most.) From there it was onto Truth or Consequences, NM (yes that name was surely ingenious). I told Tifffanee for every summit we would visit a hot spring. I am quite a ways behind on that still. (June1,2006)



We passed through Taos (where the traffic was amazingly slow) and the Taos Pueblo on the way to Wheeler Peak. The structures were nifty and very organic looking. (Which is not terribly surprising since they are made of mud and straw.) Tiffanee had fun telling me about the history of the Pueblo revolt. The church was interesting because of the mix of Catholicism and native beliefs. There are two main great houses and one supposedly is primitive and one is more modern. To be primitive apparently involves using propane tanks and Coleman stoves, lanterns, and gas lighting. Tiffanee was hungry, but when it came to deciding what to eat it became very complex, or at least it must have been for it defeated us and we drove away with no food added to our bellies. (June 2, 2006)




Instead a quick linner of canned chili was prepared before we started our hike to Williams lake where we camped for the night. It was a short hike, but despite our preparation Tiffanee looked tired. Finding the perfect spot for the tent was probably more exhausting than hiking though for her. Decisions really take it out of her.

Once again we awoke early, but not as early as on Guadalupe. We left camp sometime after 6am and were on the Summit by 9am. The trail went fairly directly from our tent up the gully you see in the picture. Our tent is the baby blue speck. From there it went onto scree and merged with a main trail on the ridge top that led to the summit. On the other side of the ridge there were some skittish goats.


It was a nice easy hike. We called Tiffanee's mom from the summit to let her know we were alive took our requisite picture and headed back down the way we came. On the way we were greeted by what Tiffanee termed "a bold marmot." I think most marmots are fairly bold especially when they smell gorp. (June 3, 2006) Next stop: Chaco Canyon.