We Do Stuff: Valle Vidal, New Mexico

Backpacking in the Carson National Forest, Valle Vidal

June 6-8, 2025

It’s springtime in the Rockies and the high mountains are still snowed in, so when Laura informed me that her new job would let her do four-day work weeks and have Fridays off through the summer, I began to poke around for a backpacking trip that we could do with Hazel. Originally, I was looking at the Pecos wilderness in New Mexico, but somehow found a little-known gem called Valle Vidal or the Valley of Life. It’s located in Northern New Mexico just north of Taos and is a wide-open grassland and forest in the Carson National Forest.

Justin, Hazel and Laura ready for an enjoyable backcountry weekend

Friday morning Hazel and I were up at 5:30 AM but since Laura had put in a full work week already, she hung out while I did a bit of research and planned a route for our weekend. We started packing our gear at 8 AM and were out the door at 9:15, headed south to explore brand new territory to us. We began our track from the trailhead at the north fork of the Ponil River, which really isn’t a river, but more of a small stream running through the grassland.

Hazel loved throwing pinecones into the Ponil River

Almost immediately, we encountered beautiful wild Iris’s and other wildflowers amongst the huge green fields of grass.

The wild iris were spectacular

There were lots of interesting things to check out on our hike.

We found lots and lots of bones in various shapes and sizes

We passed several beetle houses.

Hazel enjoyed checking out this old chimney.

This birds nest had fallen out of a tree near our camp

Our first day we hiked just under 5 miles to a beautiful camp set in an open meadow just beside the stream surrounded by giant pine trees. It’s our first night in our brand new tent and we’re excited to be in the backcountry again.

Hazel checking out the new tent

On our first night, we slept without the rain fly on the tent and the stars were amazing. I opened my eyes once and saw a very bright shooting star flash across the sky. This really is an amazing place and has very little light pollution, so the sky and stars were brilliant.

Justin and Hazel sleeping in

In the morning, we woke up around 7 AM and had a casual cup of coffee and packed up and dried out the tent and our sleeping bags, which were wet from the overnight dew. We started hiking shortly after 9 AM and after about 1 mile chose a path that was off trail to cut across the valleys to reach Beatty Lakes.

Hazel played in the mud while Justin rested and enjoyed the views at Beatty Lakes

Along the way, we passed through a burned area, and Hazel pushed over, burned tree stumps out of the ground.

Justin and Hazel relaxing at a high point in the burned section

Hazel sang songs while we were hiking, and we found two different benchmarks while hiking along the wall.

Hazel sang continuously and really got her money's worth out of the dollar store echo mic she brought for entertainment.

Hazel at one of the USGS benchmarks we passed along the way

We caught a few grasshoppers along the way

That evening at camp Laura and Hazel had a spa day and Hazel put Pepsi salt in the spa bath for their feet.

Hazel and I soaked our feet in the river and pretended we were at the spa

Hazel would put little pieces of grass into the water by our feet to make it more spa like. She called it Pepsi salt as a variation of Epsom salt.

Laura got worried and thought it was going to rain so we put the rain cover on the tent. We ended up taking the rain cover off the tent before going to bed and it was a beautiful starry night.

Hazel loves camping and Justin enjoyed the peace and quiet

The next morning, we woke up around seven and packed up, had a cup of coffee and hiked the 3 miles back to the car. The Valley Vidal is an outstanding place to spend a long weekend and to just get out and enjoy nature. We didn’t see one other person the whole weekend and really enjoyed our time here.