I convinced Dayhiker and Clutch to stay another night in Grants and we headed out to camp at the base of Mt Taylor. Clutch and I took an unintended different route to the top which primarily consisted of climbing a steep ridge through rocks and trees. The summit of Mt Taylor is 11,301, the highest point on he trail on New Mexico and the panoramic view apparently covers quarter of the state.
The trail from Mt Taylor to Cuba has been one of my favorite sections so far. We started descending and climbing along a steep volcanic ridge and eventually ended up on top of a Mesa (extensive tabletop mountain). From the top you can see country you will be walking in over the next 2 days, which is a landscape covered in canyons, mesas and volcanic plugs.
Climbing up and down canyons can be hard work with a sandy trail and the midday heat, but i was always astounded by the views from the Mesa cliffs, which seems to get better the higher we climbed. The mesas in the area are primarily sedimentary sequences of mudstone and iron cemented sandstone with some coal and paleosol layers thrown in for effect. I managed to find a few good rocks including some petrified wood and some large gypsum crystals. I have been collecting one pebble sized rock per day as a "journal" and this was definitely my best day for finding rocks.
As we head into Colorado over the next week or two, we leave behind the desert and climb into the mountains where we wl be consistently over 10,000 ft. I am sad to leave behind the barren beauty of New Mexico but excited for the next challenge of the trail.
