A Day of Exploring one of the prettiest mountain lakes in NM--Williams Lake

When we first arrived for our month-long stay in Angel Fire, New Mexico, we made a list of things we wanted to do. On that list was a hike to one of the prettiest little mountain lakes in New Mexico--Williams Lake. But the trail head is past the Taos Ski Village, an hour and a half drive from our campground. Would it really be worth driving that far for a hike? When we pulled into the trail head parking lot and could already see the mountain peaks around us, we knew the drive was worth it!

To get to that parking lot, we had to drive up Twining Road--a very steep gravel road that starts at the Taos Ski Village. But driving up that road brought us up to 10,200 feet in elevation and at the base of the Cachina ski lift. That's a good elevation to start a hike!

We were soon away from any evidence of the ski resort, and found ourselves walking beside a roaring mountain stream.

But then the work began. It's a rocky trail that climbs 800 feet in elevation during its 2.2 miles through the forest.

Occasionally we would break into an opening of a scree field, and get a quick view of the mountain peaks that were getting closer as we hiked higher.

You know it's going to be a "cool" hike, when you start seeing snow on the mountains that surround you.

We were greeted by a gray jay, whose friendliness made us think that he was used to getting trail snacks from hikers.

This smaller jay had less impressive plumage, but was better at posing for pictures.

Another quarter mile down into the valley, and we got our first look at Williams Lake.

This little alpine lake is worth more than just one look. We love to see the snow-speckled mountains reflected in the lake.

The signs says we are at the elevation of 11,040 feet overlooking the lake.

We think those craggly snowy peaks are the prettiest, but the star of the show here is the mountain that is pictured behind Denisa. That's the tallest peak in New Mexico--Mt. Wheeler. In just two more miles with another 2,000 feet gain in elevation, we could be sitting on top of that tallest peak today.

But we have plans for Wheeler Peak on another day. So instead, we're heading towards the pine tree forest in front of those snowy peaks instead.


That's because we've been told about a nice waterfall hidden in the trees. We'll always hike a steep slope up a mountain to see a nice waterfall.

Then we'll hike even further up that mountain to see an even bigger waterfall.

Then Mark will climb even higher up that mountain to get a bird's eye view of that big waterfall.

It's from that vantage point that he reported he had reached a beautiful plateau of snow, wildflowers, and babbling streams.

Denisa climbed even higher up the mountain because she is a sucker for snow,

wildflowers,

and babbling streams with wildflowers in the foreground! It was a beautiful place to be!

Mark likes a good hiking trail, but he loves even more to explore off the trail when the scenery is this beautiful!

The tips of those craggly mountains that were so far away when we first arrived at the lake, are now within our reach.

Scrambling up those rock slides is hard work, but Mark has to see the views from the next level up.

We have wandered into another of God's wonders, and we have this little piece of heaven all to ourselves. By now we have wandered several miles off the trail, and hiked up another 800 feet in elevation. We have also jumped over more than a dozen streams filled with snow melt and mountain spring water.

All this water makes for a spongy habitat that is perfect for the marsh marigold.

We are also far enough off the trail that we spotted our first wildlife of the day. This young buck is sprouting his velvety antlers, and he just stood and stared at us.

He finally decided to leave the meadow covered with the white marsh marigolds But we could tell that he still wasn't sure about the couple of wanderers that were obviously way off the normal trail.

If we were on the trail, we wouldn't have found this stream that disappeared into an ice cave . . .

or this peat moss meadow surrounded by mountain peaks that we just climbed from. The round trip hike to Williams Lake was supposed to be 4.4 miles. But with all our wanderings we turned it into a 8.3 mile round trip. Our day of fun exploring was definitely worth the drive we made to get here this morning!

For hiking that kind of distance, we could have made it to the top of Wheeler Peak and back. But instead, we enjoyed our wanderings in the forest around one of the prettiest mountains lakes in New Mexico. After we tramped back to Williams Lake we took another look at the highest peak in New Mexico. We won't come from this direction, but we'll be at the peak of Wheeler Mountain very soon!