In July of 2013 I hiked Lobo Peak plus 6 other peaks on a 23 mile hike over 2 days. Below Lobo Peak is Perra Peak and I could have done Gallina Peak, elevation 10,887, that day with a 3 mile round trip hike from Perra Peak, but I was a little too worn out and at the time, and was not much interested in upper 10K peaks. I knew if I ever decided to do Gallina Peak it would be lots of work. The best way to hike this peak is in combination with Lobo Peak and Perra Peak. (My wife hiked Lobo Peak with me in 2009. One of her 2 peaks.)
To make my hiking day easier, my wife and I stayed a night in the “crows nest” room of La Fonda on the plaza and I scouted a way up the day before. I parked my car at the Yerba Trailhead on the way to the Taos Ski area and started hiking a little after 6:00 AM, June 25, 2017. It was a cool morning with the temperature of 59 degrees. The starting elevation was 8188 feet. The day before I scouted a ridge to go up. It is almost always easier to hike a ridge than a valley. I knew that getting to the ridge would be tough, and it was! I crossed a little stream, went through thick bushes, then climbed a 43 degree angle hill to the ridge. It was very tough and at times I had to scramble on all fours. The ridge was a little difficult to navigate at first going through thick trees and having to maneuver around some rocky ledges but it leveled out and for the most part was a good way to go. When I go on deep country backwoods hikes I rarely see any evidence of another person. Part way up, I saw where someone had started building a tepee frame. It was a beautiful forest of ponderosa pine, white fur, aspen, scrub oak, blue spruce and occasional wildflowers. Some of the ridge hiking was fairly strenuous, have to hike some 37 degree angles. I arrived at the top after hiking 3 hours and 15 minutes. The total elevation gain was 2822 feet. I stayed on the top about 20 minutes, taking pictures, signing a peakbagging log in a jar, and looking at the nice views through the trees. I proceeded down the same way I had come up. It sure felt good going the other way. Almost any time that I hike, if I look deeply enough, I can see the remains of a past forest fire and this hike was no exception. The forest was fully grown up, but I could see the remains of a fire maybe 1 or 2 hundred years ago. I am thankful it happened, otherwise today’s hike would have been through an impenetrable forest. It was a nice hike down but some of the descending steepness was a little difficult. I went to the place where I first came up, descended from the ridge, went through the thick bushes, crossed the little stream and I was at the exit to Yerba Canyon. The hike down took 2 hours and 20 minutes. The temperature had crept up to about 70 degrees. The total hike was 5.5 miles with an up-down elevation gain of 2995 feet. Even though this was an unranked “minor” peak, it was as difficult as the they come, and more so than many ranked “major” peaks! It was only a 20 minute drive straight back to the plaza, but I stopped along the way back to take pictures and have an ice cream at Taos Cows in Arroyo Seco.