20 Aug Taos Summer Hiking: Bull of the Woods, Yerba Canyon

Thursday July 28: Bull of the Woods

We tackled our first New Mexico summit with the 6.2 mile hike to the top of Bull of the Woods, a peak overlooking the Taos Ski Valley at 11,600 feet. We were joined by our fellow work-trader Kali and her visiting friend Pablo, and it was the first hike we did that originated up within Ski Valley property.

We arrived at the trailhead early and were on the move shortly after 8am. Knowing that our monsoon season is delivering afternoon-evening precipitation almost daily, we wanted to be finished with the hike by early afternoon. The trail was steep and steadily inclining, past the upper neighborhoods and mountain bike trails of the ski valley. The forest with lush with all the recent rain, showcasing wildflowers and tons of mushrooms! The skies remained overcast and the temps were cool but humid, lovely weather to

We enjoyed frequent pauses to identify plants, trees and chatting with our friends. The hike was fairly strenuous climbing 2,100 over the 3 mile ascent. We arrived at the summit around 10:30a and were quick to enjoy a summit picnic of cheese, some veggie skillet leftovers, and cucumber tomato basil salad. The views of the nearby Wheeler Peak, Taos Ski Valley, and the town of Red River were fantastic reward for the climb.

After our snack, we scurried back down the steep trail and were soon hiking in the light rain for about 20 minutes.

We soon arrived back at the base of Taos Ski Valley and scurried into one of our favorite local spots – Taos Ale House. They have a great Detroit-style pizza menu with 20% locals discount! The rain continued through the afternoon on and off, and we were thoroughly enjoying our day off, just 20 minutes away from the farm.

Thursday Aug 4: Yerba Canyon

We carried on our hiking trend the following week by testing out the closest of the Twining Canyon trails: Yerba Canyon. Yerba meaning herb, we found the first two miles of the trail incredibly lush and fruitful! Wild raspberries, tons of varieties of mushrooms and other plants were bountiful with fruit and flowers.

The trail followed and crossed the small river flowing down the steep climb. At the top of this trail lay another future hiking goal of ours: Lobo Peak, which is accessible from all four trailheads within Twining Canyon, just below Taos Ski Valley.

We ended our hike around the 2.5 mile mark, when the trail’s mellow grade drastically changed to steep switchbacks for the next 3 miles to the summit. We chose a downed log as our break bench amidst a huge aspen grove. The views on the way down were lovely overlooking the mountains on the other side of Twining Canyon.

We look forward to tackling more hikes in the area every week!