New Mexico: Hike to Lake Peak!

This is my last post from my New Mexico Series. Hopefully one day this will help someone find a little bit of information about things to see in this amazing state. I am starting to feel very nostalgic, after just a week of moving away. New Mexico really is a magical state.

For out last weekend we were just going to go to Abiquiu Lake, and pack up. But at some point Lilo got it in his head that he wanted to hike up to one of the peaks surrounding Santa Fe. He spent days researching about it, even though I told him that I was not physically capable of going up those mountains. He insisted and insisted, so in the end I had to do it. It was extremely exhausting, but such an amazing ending to my life in New Mexico.

This was such a magical hike. We hiked up 3500 ft. in about 3 miles, and I think that the lack of oxygen made it seem even more magical. Right under the peak was a small lake. A pair of really experienced hikers told us that we could just hike down the huge cliff to the lake, and that we should hike backwards so that if we fall it doesn't hurt much. Yeah right.

Posing with the toilet paper. Who knows why... 

At first I thought that the worst part was the difficulty of hiking on such a steep uphill, but I was wrong. After a certain point, the path went very close to the edge, and down was a rocky cliff. This was when I started dragging my butt on the ground instead of walking on two legs like normal human beings do (it felt much more stable).

The Santa Fe Baldy in the back!

The ending point in the distance.... with the hardest part still to come. 

Finally we made it to the top, where we set up a blanket and took a nap under the burning sun before heading back down. We also ate a whole tub of cream cheese in 5 minutes!!!

The two crazy hikers took our picture right before telling us to jump down the cliff...

Cleaning up after our nap

Finally we hiked back down. For some reason my knees decided to give up, and I was in excruciating pain the whole way down. I still haven't recovered completely, and I have no idea of what happened.

Trying to hide the pain :(

Getting back to the car was one of the happiest moments in the whole trip. I was so proud of having done it, and sooooo excited to get to sit down and give my knees a rest. 

This is just one of the hundreds of GORGEOUS hikes that New Mexico has to offer. I was so sad not to have done it earlier. Maybe one day I'll come back and do many more. But for now, this experience showed me how even the hardest hike can be an incredible experience if you are in such a beautiful place. Thank you Lilo for insisting.