Old Mike Peak, 13108.2 ft (3995 m)

 Summited Old Mike Peak last Monday (the 27th) after leaving the Williams Lake Trailhead at 6:05 a.m. By 9:00 a.m. I was on the summit, having passed Wheeler Peak and Simpson Peak along the way. My main reason for climbing Old Mike was to finally get a view of Blue Lake, which holds a central place in the spirituality and origin story of the Taos Pueblo.

After leaving Wheeler Peak behind, I was walking the ridge between Simpson and Old Mike Peak when I encountered a bighorn ewe and her little one. They did not seem particularly alarmed, so I had time to pull out my camera and take a few shots. Below is the least bad one.

On the return, I summited both Simpson Peak and Wheeler Peak (though not for the first time). After descending from Wheeler, I decided to add Mount Walter to the day, then continued to the unnamed peak beside it to get a few shots of Horseshoe Lake.

In the end, it turned into a four-peak day with about 4,000 feet of elevation gain and 11 miles of hiking, all under nearly perfect conditions. At this time of year, it's important to be off the high peaks by around noon, as the Southwest monsoon often brings rapidly developing thunderstorms and unstable weather almost every afternoon.

Loki on the summit of Old Mike Peak,

View down frm Old Mike Peak. This slope is north facing, so should be pretty good skiing

Here we interrupted some family time.

This is why I wanted to get on top of Old Mike Peak, to see Blue Lake. This is the lake that 
feeds the stream that runs through the Taos Pueblo village.

This is the aptly named Horseshoe Lake.

Reflection of Lake Fork Peak in Williams Lake.

Simpson Peak, 12,977' (3,955m)

Yesterday was my first visit to Simpson Peak. I started from the Williams Lake Trailhead and hiked to Simpson Peak via Wheeler Peak. It’s a fantastic route, beginning with about 45 minutes through the alpine forest, followed by roughly an hour climbing the west face of Wheeler above the tree line to reach the ridge. From there, the hike becomes spectacular, with nearly an hour of ridge walking as you first summit Wheeler Peak and then continue on to Simpson Peak. The weather and trail conditions were ideal, making for an easy, enjoyable hike. Here are the pictures!

Looking WSW from Simpson is Old Mike Peak, 13,088'. To the right of this ridge is
 Taos Pueblo land so strictly no accessing.

More views of the Taos Pueblo lands.

The south end of the Wheeler Wilderness Cirque.

Accross the cirque looking west is Lake Fork Peak and to the far left its "gendarme"...

...and next to it is Kachina Peak getting you to the limits of Taos Ski Valley.

To the west under Wheeler Peak, a partial view of William's Lake.

This view of Wheeler Peak is taken from the low point just north of it,
between Simpson and Wheeler Peaks.

Looking NE from Simpson Peak an open expanse and Colorado in the distance. The lake or
what is left of it shows how dry the mountain is, time for the monsoon to cick in...

The first peak from the left is Simpson. Taken last week from Lake Fork Peak.

Lake Fork Peak, 12,882' (3,926m)

Yesterday I went up Lake Fork Peak for the first time. I’ve been noticing it on my many hikes to Kachina Peak because, once you’re up there, it’s pretty hard to miss.

I wasn’t entirely sure about the best approach, but from a distance I had noticed something that vaguely resembled a trail. In any case, trail or no trail, I was going to give it a try.

The first few hundred yards beyond Kachina, including a drop of about 200 feet, were just open country. But as I got closer to the notch between the two peaks, I found what I call the “red trail.” It’s not exactly a trail in the usual sense, but more of an itinerary marked by red dots spray-painted on rocks every hundred yards or so.

The red dots start a little below the Kachina lift base station, continue to the top of Kachina Peak, and then seem to disappear until you pass the low point between Kachina and Lake Fork Peak. I was pretty excited to find them again there, so I followed them for the better part of an hour.

Eventually, though, I realized they were not taking me to the summit, so I left the route and went straight up for about 15 minutes. That brought me almost exactly to the high point. So, that worked out nicely.

I took my summit picture and then headed down the south ridge of Lake Fork Peak, assuming I would eventually reconnect with the red trail. That worked out too. Within a few minutes I found the dots again and followed them in reverse.

It seems those red dots mark a route around the Wheeler Wilderness cirque and eventually back toward Wheeler Peak. The route follows the ridge in some places, bypasses a few summits, and occasionally drops well below the ridgeline before climbing back up again.

So that’s my next project: hike the cirque from Kachina to Wheeler, then descend via the Williams Lake Trail back to the Bavarian. Sounds like a fine way to spend a day. In the meantime, here are yesterday's pictures:

View of Lake Fork Peak from Kachina Peak. The cliff band to the left is what I refer to as the "gendarme" or guard of the peak. It gets its own picture below.

View of Kachina Peak from Lake Fork Peak. Click to enlarge and you'll see close to the middle of the picture, the top Kachina lift station.

View down the valley with Williams Lake hidden by the knob in the middle of this shot. The highest point above it is Wheeler Peak.

Walk down (north) a 100 yards from the summit and the lake appears behind the knob.

The high point in this shot is Old Mike Peak at 13,088'. The peak just to its left is Simpson
Peak, 12,970' and, as opposed to Old Mike Peak is right on the cirque ridge.

Here is the impressive gendarme shown on its own (mentioned in the caption of
the first picture.

Here is Loki on the way back down finding one of the rare snow patches left.