PECOS BALDY LAKE
via Jacks Creek · Pecos Wilderness, NM
The plan was simple: leave work on a Friday, drive out to the Pecos, and camp at the top of the first climb — about 1.5 miles in from Jacks Creek. Sleep there. Get an early start on day two without the full pack. It works. I recommend it.
We brought snowshoes as a precaution. Early May in the Pecos Wilderness, we figured there might be some snow up high. There was. The last two or three miles to the lake we were fully in snowshoes, and snowshoeing uphill at altitude is one of the more humbling physical experiences I've had on a trail. Every step costs more than it should. You're doing the math constantly — how much farther to the lake, is the lake going to be worth this.
The answer turned out to be yes.
The lake was still frozen solid. We'd been to Pecos Baldy before but never in May, and this was a different place entirely. Standing in front of a frozen alpine lake with a snow-covered peak behind it and total silence around you does something to your brain. The exhaustion is still there. You just stop caring about it.
A couple of elk on the way up. The wilderness was doing its winter thing, mostly undisturbed. Don't go expecting a lot of wildlife in early May — most things are smarter than you about the snow.