MT. TAYLOR, NM ~ May 26-27, 2007

“We just have to go back there!” That quote from my 7-year-old son echoes what we all thought about our trip up Mount Taylor. Although white settlers christened it Mount Taylor after General Zachary Taylor, this mountain had long been an area of special religious and cultural significance to several local American Indian communities. It turned out to be a magical place to us as well.

After eating at Chili Kicks on Route 66, we went to find a place to camp for the night. To get to Mount Taylor from Grants, go north on First Street until you reach Lobo Canyon Road. You will go past a Smith’s supermarket, the Mount Taylor Ranger District office, a nice subdivision, and then a state prison. From there it’s a gently curving road up into the mountains. The paved portion reminded me of the road that Lightning McQueen and Sally drove on in Cars, but without the waterfall. After about 13 miles, the pavement ends and from there it is a good dirt-and-gravel road until you get near the top and then the road begins to deteriorate.

Though not as impressive as Humphrey’s Peak in Arizona when seen from a distance, Mount Taylor is considered to be one of New Mexico's most beautiful peaks and its location is not all that remote, so we were surprised at how little-used the area appeared to be. We were there on Memorial Day weekend but only saw signs of one other group of campers.

The 11,301-foot mountain is the cinder cone of an extinct stratovolcano, surrounded by a field of smaller inactive volcanoes. It is part of the same volcanic system as the lava fields at nearby El Malpais. When Mount Taylor erupted, a large chunk of the summit was blown off, but it’s unclear as to how high the mountain was before the eruption.

As we neared the top of Mount Taylor, the road got so bad and washed out that we couldn’t go any further. There was standing water, too, so it must have either rained recently or it’s just a wetter area than we’re used to Arizona. The top of the mountain is covered with radio towers so I’m surprised that the road isn’t better maintained. I wonder if there is a better access road from the other side for servicing the equipment?

We turned around and went back to a camping spot we had seen next to a grassy meadow, and stayed there for the night. This place was so pristine and beautiful! If it had been in Arizona they would have had to rope off the meadow to keep people from wrecking it from overuse. The meadow was covered with little yellow flowers, and upon closer observation I saw that they were all dandelions. Everyone calls them weeds but dandelions are one of my favorite flowers! Their petals closed up at night but as soon as the morning sun appeared, the dandelions all started opening and the bright yellow petals looked like miniature suns themselves. We could just about see it happening right before our eyes but still I would have liked to have had a time lapse camera to photograph that.

The spot where we were camped out had something for everyone – a pretty flower-covered meadow for me, a mountainside for Rich to hike, some real nice rock outcroppings for the kids to climb on – plus “lots of nature” as Josh always says. The forest was mostly Douglas fir with a few aspen trees, whereas in Arizona it’s mostly ponderosa pine. In the leaf litter under the trees, we even found a few puff balls. One of the cliffs had a cave in it but it was up high and we didn’t have our climbing gear. It would have been the perfect spot to stay and play all day, but we were planning to head down to El Malpais so we had to break up camp. Mount Taylor is at the top of my list of places to go the next time we have another long weekend!