One of the most beautiful places in New Mexico to view the changing of aspen to their golden fall color is the drive north of Santa Fe into the Santa Fe ski basin. The first or second week of October is typically the best time to see this spectacular color change. Someone added a very obscure peak to the peakbagger.com website, Little Tesuque Peak, elevation 11,182. Its prominence is only 42 feet and I could have had this several times before, coming off of big Tesuque Peak, which sits directly to the east. I also decided to hike beautiful golden Aspen Peak, 11,109. I hiked this peak once before.

I went with my friend Dave H. We both go Calvary Church in Albuquerque and met in the church parking lot at 8:00 AM, Friday October 7, 2022. We headed north, stopping for some pictures along the way and were hiking a little before 10:00 AM. It was a very cool misty morning. The temperature was 41 degrees. I gave Dave an extra jacket. The starting elevation was 10,260. We parked in the ski basin parking lot, crossed over a pretty little stream, up the road a bit, then directly up a ski run. It was a little bit of a chug, but not overly difficult. It was beautiful seeing the misty clouds mixing with the golden aspen. We were surrounded by blue spruce, aspen and beautiful green meadows. There was a little rain mixed with a bit of sleet falling on us. We arrived at the top, 70 minutes after we left. It was 1.9 miles with an un-down elevation gain of 1064 feet. It could have easily been done in less time, but I was taking pictures and trying to jockey myself to get a peak picture through the mist to put on peakery.com. The mist parted on the top and we were able to enjoy the picturesque golden setting. I so much wanted a peak picture that we returned to a little hill nearby and spent about a half an hour until the mist moved out and I was able to get a fairly good picture of Little Tesuque Peak. We headed down the same way we came up, only taking 35 minutes to get back to the parking lot. It was 3.4 miles with an up-down elevation gain of 1145 feet. It was 12:25.

We went to the start of Winsor Trail 254 to hike Aspen Peak and got under the information sign to get out of the rain. We decided to put on our rain ponchos, crossed a little stream, then headed up the winding forested switchback trail to ridgeline and entered the Pecos Wilderness. The Pecos Wilderness is the second largest wilderness in New Mexico and my favorite place for outdoor adventures. A curious grey jay found us along the way. This is the most curious bird I have ever seen. It will get very close, look you in the face, and sometimes follow you for a way. I see this bird on most of my Pecos adventures going way back to my days as a kid in Boy Scouts. It made a beautiful little sound at us, a sound I have never heard before. We no longer needed our rain ponchos. There is a little trail going directly west when one enters the wilderness. This time of year, it was a trail with a magical feel, walking on gold, the fallen aspen leaves. I hiked this peak with my daughter Christina exactly 11 years ago to the day. We both did some bushwhacking, but Dave and I were able to stay on a trail to the top, just crossing a few downed trees. It was 1:40, an hour and 15 minutes from the bottom, 1.5 miles, 850 feet gain from the bottom. The top is tree covered and there are no views. (At this point we hiked 4.9 miles for the day with an up-down gain of 1994 feet.) We hiked down the way we came and were back at the car at 2:30. We hiked 6.2 miles for the day, with a up-down gain of 2030 feet. The temperature was still cool it had only warmed up 4 degrees to 45°. Dave and I stopped at Dion’s Pizza in Santa Fe on the way back. Most of my peakbagging has been by myself, so it was a great pleasure hiking with Dave.

See pictures of highest peaks in New Mexico: 1 to 62 of highest 184 NM peaks (Now 190) Part 1 YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAjCsjbhYMw
See pictures of highest peaks in New Mexico: 63 to 124 of highest 184 NM peaks (Now 190) Part 2 YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrFMjoB9zNY

List of highest 184 peaks in New Mexico (Now 190) A very inclusive list!
https://peakbagger.com/list.aspx?lid=-925606&cid=1477