We rented a home in Red River, NM over Labor Day weekend 2011 for 10 of our family members. Yesterday I got up early and hiked Black Mountain and today, Sunday, I got up before the first crack of light to hike Greenie Peak, elevation 11,249. I left so early so that I would be back when everyone was beginning to stir. No one would go with me on the hike, too early. My son Garret was along whom I mostly hike peaks with, but he didn’t feel like hiking peaks on a vacation weekend. I did a little scouting yesterday to find the right roads to make it quicker to get to the peak. I left the house, in the dark, at 5:45. It was a cool crisp 48 degrees and it was raining. I was not too happy about the rain, but I figured that I would put on my rain poncho and just tough it out. Greenie Peak is a peak that you can drive to with a 4 wheel drive vehicle, but I would not count a peak that I did not experience at least a little pain, so I planned to stop about a mile and a half away from the peak and hike to the top. In Red River you turn north on Mallette Road. It is about 7.5 miles to the top. All you have to do is keep following the signs with the little green triangle on it. The first 2 miles is a dirt road that any car can make, but the last 5.5 miles you need a 4 wheel drive vehicle. I was given some incorrect information the day before and got a little lost driving and by the time I stopped to hike it was an hour after I left the house. I stopped 6 miles up the road with 1.5 miles to hike. My elevation gain with some ups and downs was 670 feet. My starting elevation was 10,700 feet. To my surprise and delight the rain stopped and I found myself above the clouds. It was one of the most wondrous and beautiful hikes that I have done before. The air was fresh and crisp after raining, and oceans of clouds were in all the valleys with the sun majestically highlighting everything. Beautiful forests and meadows were all around. What a beautiful hike! I got some incredible pictures. It only took me 45 minutes to hike the 1.5 miles. After enjoying the views on the mountain I headed down. The hike down was 1.7 miles for a total of 3.2 miles and it took me an hour and a half. This was the easiest peak that I have ever hiked, but I have hiked so many hard peaks that I felt that I was due one. It was so easy that I decided to hike another peak, Tunnel Hill, in the afternoon. It took me 30 minutes to drive down the dirt road and back to the house. You have to drive slowly on the 4 wheel drive sections. I got back at the house at 8:45 and had a great breakfast burrito that my son cooked. (I hiked 15.1 miles and 3 peaks for the weekend. See the trip reports for Black Mountain & Tunnel Hill)