Route: Wheeler Peak to Wheeler Peak (NV, NM)

​​​This started out a few years ago as a joke, “Hah! Two major US peaks named after the same guy (Major George Wheeler), why not run between them?!” But as I started looking at the route, it became apparent that this would take runners through some of the most unique landscapes in the country. Some major scenic highlights you could run past include:

• Mesa Verde National Park
• The Colorado River
• Monument Valley
• Shiprock
• Zion National Park
• Cedar Breaks National Monument
• Bryce Canyon National Park
• Capitol Reef National Park

Wheeler Peak in Nevada (13,063’) is considered by some to be the highest (or at least most important) peak in Nevada. Boundary Peak on the California border is technically higher (77 feet higher), but it is 298 feet shorter than Montgomery Peak 2/3 of a mile away, just across the border into California. Wheeler Peak, on the other hand, rises dramatically out of the desert and is home to one of the southernmost glaciers in North America. It’s the highest point in the Snake Mountains and is the centerpiece of Great Basin National Park one of the most remote and least visited national parks in the country. There is a large population of bristlecone pines in this range and the impressive Lehman caves.

Wheeler Peak in New Mexico is the 8^th highest US state highpoint, at 13,161’. It towers over Taos Ski Valley at the southern end of the Rocky Mountains and is generally climbed late May through November, from the north.

There are an almost infinite number of routes that can be taken between the two peaks. Time starts when you leave Wheeler Peak and ends when you reach, um well, Wheeler Peak. The shortest route may not be the most practical. I’m hopeful that a mostly trail or gravel variation will eventually become the standard, but even the paved roads are all incredibly scenic in their own right.

https://www.summitpost.org/wheeler-peak-nm/150429

https://www.summitpost.org/wheeler-peak/150191