My wife and I rented a home on the river in the little alpine resort town of Red River, New Mexico for 3 days over Labor Day weekend. I left the home at 6:15 AM on Sunday, September 4, 2016 to hike 2 peaks north of town. From Red River I took Mallette Road north. The first couple of miles it is a nice dirt road, then abruptly it turns into a very, very tough 4WD road. It is about 7 miles to the parking place, but on the tough dirt road it took over an hour to get there. Along the way I saw a mother elk with calf. I parked southeast of Greenie Peak and west of my first goal, Peak 11,033. As you drive from Red River to the parking place you have to be careful to follow the little green triangles to get near Greenie Peak. The GPS tried to take me on a route that is no longer in existence. My parking place coordinates were N 36 45.384 - W 105 22.017. Another issue driving the road were deep water holes from the rain. In one hole, my vehicle sunk deep and steam started coming from the engine, but Land Cruisers are tough and will go just about anywhere. Beware of what you drive on this road especially during rainy season!
I started hiking at 7:22 AM at an elevation of about 10,875 feet. It was a cool cloudy morning. I hiked directly to the east and had to do some bushwhacking to get to the top of the Peak 11,033. It only took me 25 minutes and was 8 tenths of a mile. It was a tree covered peak and there were no views from the top. There were very few views the entire hike. I headed back to the SUV then east along mostly unimproved roads. I was the only one on the mountain for awhile, then it started ……. ATVs and motorcycles from the Labor Day weekend crowd made it one of the most un-peaceful hikes I have ever been on. I cut through the woods some, but stayed mostly on the rough roads. I arrived at my second destination, Peak 10,940, sometimes listed as Peak 10,920. It was a distance of 5.2 miles from the start and took about 2 and a half hours. This peak was also tree covered with no views. I hiked back to the west staying mostly on my original tracks. Still lots of noisy Labor Day vehicles! I would recommend doing this hike on a non-busy weekday. I arrived back at the SUV after hiking 8.7 miles. It took 4 hours and 5 minutes to hike. My total elevation gain for the day was 1828 feet. I then drove to the top of Greenie Peak to get pictures of the peaks I hiked. This hike is so tree covered I could not get a picture. This also allowed me to miss the deep water holes. I enjoyed the “Indiana Jones” rough 4WD ride back. It took a little less than an hour for my return trip. My wife and I ate that evening at the Sundance Mexican restaurant in Red River, which in my opinion, have the best Sopapillas I have ever eaten.

This ends my 2016 peakbagging. I hiked 24 peaks this year. That makes 200 NM peaks including repeats and a few more outside the state. I am only interested in 33 more NM peaks. If I am able to hike them, I would have the 102 highest major peaks in NM with all the minors peaks in-between. I have 142 of those 169 peaks. I am also interested in 4 NM peaks that would complete the “Albuquerque Home Court” list and 2 peaks that would complete the “Santa Fe Classic” list. I hiked over a hundred miles this year with an overall elevation gain of 31,533 feet.

See the list of the highest 169 peaks in NM on Peakbaggers....

http://www.peakbagger.com/list.aspx?lid=-925606&pt=prom