Mount Taylor
Jun 3, 2010
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Despite the car crappiness, I did have a very nice holiday weekend. Neither Matt nor I had ever been to Mount Taylor, so we weren't sure what to expect. It's a volcano, so I was thinking steep-y steep with pine trees and stuff like that, which it did have. But I wasn't expecting this at all.
This is the beautiful meadow where we had our campsite. I loved it. And there were quite a few more just like it. We spent part of the last day scoping out other places we could camp next time.
Camping is not much without a campfire. Even though I've been camping like a hundred times thanks to my job, and I know how to collect wood and build campfires just fine, I was not very much involved in these activities much beyond digging out the fire pit and putting rocks around it. When camping with your significant other and his friends, it is important to remember that fire building is an important demonstration of male-ness that you probably should just avoid being involved in.
So I took pictures.
Manly men doing manly things. GRRR!!!
Sexy!
Finally, the fire was ready.
And then we could eat! We ate quite well on this trip. The couple we went camping with are vegans so Matt and I lived it up with sausages, burgers, scrambled eggs and cheese while they had tofu. Each to their own, I suppose. They were fun to camp with, though, and they brought chocolate beer. Which is delicious.
After the first night, the other couple left because it was too cold. It was really cold at night. We estimated we were up at about 8500 - 9000 ft. Albuquerque is at about 5000 ft, so we were pretty high up there. Add that to the sun going behind the trees and the wind coming through our little valley, and we definitely needed hats, gloves, and two jackets. I was really warm in my sleeping bag, though, which was nice.
In the days that followed, we explored more of the mountain and saw some really beautiful things. My pictures really do not do it justice at all, because I am super impatient and just randomly point and click at things. Matt takes his time, zooming in just right to line up the perfect shot. So I might have to steal some of his to get a more accurate representation. But for now, you're stuck with this.
Some cool looking rocks
Another awesome meadow
Pretty view and my really dirty car
And for the last one, see those mountains off in the distance? Those are the Sandias in Albuquerque, about 2 blocks away from my house. At this point, we were almost at the top of the mountain, which is somewhere around 11,000 feet. It was amazing.
Assuming dormant/extinct volcano? Do you physically notice the altitude much? Just curious. Highest day hike I ever did was only up to 4500 feet or so which I'm not sure is high enough to feel any different, and I'm not sure I noticed anything mucking around on the ski slopes last year at about 6-7,000ft. Interesting to note the different veg and climate; 11,000 feet will put you waaay above the treeline in NZ.
I wasn't sure about its activity history, so I looked it up and it was active about 3.3-1.5 million years ago. So it's probably safe to walk around on :) Oh yes, I definitely notice the altitude. I was tired after walking up just a little bit. I figured 11,000 ft would be above treeline as well, so I was surprised we still saw some up there, although there were definitely less.
How cool!!
I've never gone camping. But I'd like to. It seems fun!
I'm glad you had a great time with Matt and could enjoy that beautiful landscape!!
Really? You have never been camping? You should go. It's fun!
This trip looks great, and it has made me want to go camping! Looks like a beautiful area - I'm glad you had a good time.
I'm jealous of your proximity to mountains :)