Wheeler Peak is located in Carson National Forest about 20 miles northeast of Taos, New Mexico. The trailhead starts at Taos Ski Valley at an elevation of 9,390 feet and summits at the highest point in New Mexico, Wheeler Peak, at 13,161 feet. The trail is approximately 15 miles round trip.

The plan was to get on the trail between 11:00 and 12:00 on Saturday, October 5th, and reach the five mile mark, La Cal Basin, by the end of the first day, where we would camp. Then, summit early Sunday morning and downhike the trail back to the cars that same day. On Saturday, we were able to reach the five mile mark as planned, but summiting the next day was quickly ruled out that night when altitude sickness got the better of one of our troopers. So, Sunday morning we hiked back down.

The picture to the right shows La Cal Basin, were we camped (bottom left of the picture) as well as Mount Walter (the snowy 13,133 foot peak in the middle of the picture) and Wheeler Peak (the black point that sticks up to the right of Walter in the picture). Mount Walter is about a half mile down the trail from Wheeler.

As for experiences on this trip, I personally experienced some of the harshest backpacking conditions I've ever been in. As we crossed the high point of the hike on Saturday, the 12,150 foot ridge on Frazer Mountain, the wind was extremely strong and the temperature was fairly close to freezing. I would say that some of the wind gusts were pushing 50 mph. No complaints though; I LOVED IT!! As far as not summiting goes... don't mind a bit. Any summit attempt is a success, and sometimes you even reach the top.

Below are some more nice pictures from the trip.

• Frazer Ridge (Shaunna, Johnnie, and Jeff heading over Frazer Ridge on Sunday morning. The wind wasn't as bad as it was Saturday, but it was still really strong.)
• Great view!. (An awesome view of the georgous valleys that we were so fortunate to see. The spectacular colors of the changing aspens were worth the whole trip alone.)