The couple of days we ended up staying in Grants were amazingly fun. The hotel we chose (Quality Inn) was surprisingly laid back, hiker friendly and had all the amenities required for a comfortable stay. We spent our time lounging, soaking in the hot tub, hanging out with all the other hikers in town and making frequent trips to nearby restaurants and grocery stores. A highlight was having Laura's father, Lloyd, visit from Albuquerque and spend time giving some of us massages.
Refueled and rested, our small band of friends headed out of town along yet another highway. We headed out that day with Nightcrawler, Focus, Bigfoot, Mountain Spice, Thatch and Kramers. I didn't take many pictures. Our goal was to reach the base of Mt. Taylor on the first night and decide if the weather would make a trip to the summit worth it. It rained and hailed off and on that evening as we climbed and started to snow up higher. We awoke to a light layer of fresh snow and I decided to opt for the lower route since it felt significantly stormy and the climb wouldn't yield any views with the clouds sitting on top of us.
We parted ways that frigid morning, some opting to brave the summit, heading up into the collecting snow on Mt. Taylor. I caught up with Delightful, whom I hadn't seen in a few days and we kept each other company as we plodded through a beautiful, frozen wonderland of white.
Some delicious figs that Lloyd had given me in Grants.
Eventually the snow storm tapered off and we decended enough to where it was warmer and drier. I lost Meg, and then met a nice guy named Tom (from Israel) that afternoon. He and I hit it off immediately and ended up spending the rest of the section hiking, sharing stories and camping together.
I really wish I had better pictures from the next couple of days. It was an amazing section and the photographs I have don't do it proper justice. The mesas and rock formations we traveled though were incredible.
Spot the bunny!
Tom demonstrating the fine art of fitting through stiles with a backpack on.
These formations are enormous and many of them are hollow or cavernous.
The night before town Meg caught up and we got seriously stormed on. We sat in our tents and read a magazine she had been carrying as thunder and lightning split the sky above us. You'd never know how intense it was from how beautiful the following day was. We tromped through the mud that morning and headed into the little town of Cuba.
Cuba was a blast and there were a ton of hikers piled up at the Del Prado motel. It basically turned into a couple days of hanging out drinking in the parking lot and going out to eat with everyone. It was a super fun town stop.