Truchas Peaks

The panel's 13,101 feet is a foot short of the usual figure. South Truchas Peak, at 13,102, is the second-highest point in New Mexico, with Middle and North Truchas also above 13,000. The pale rock the panel calls quartzite is the Ortega Quartzite, ancient beach sand pressed and heated into stone more than 3,000 feet thick, the same formation that walls the Brazos Cliffs across the Rio Grande valley. The peaks went into the Pecos Wilderness under the Wilderness Act of 1964, and the wilderness has since grown to about 223,000 acres.

What the plaque says

Official Scenic Historic Marker Truchas Peaks Ice age glaciers carved these beautiful alpine peaks, among the highest in the New Mexico Rockies, rising to 13,101 feet. Precambrian quartzite, some of the oldest rock in New Mexico, forms the core of the Truchas ("trout") Peaks, part of the Pecos Wilderness which encompasses some of the most pristine mountain terrain in the state.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• El Santuario de Chimayó — 8.0 mi
  A small adobe shrine on the High Road to Taos, built around 1816 over earth that pilgrims still carry away in hope of healing.
• San Francisco de Asís Church, Ranchos de Taos — 24 mi
  The adobe church at Ranchos de Taos that artists always paint from behind, kept standing by the mud its parish spreads over it every June.

More markers nearby

• Truchas — 1.3 mi
• Cordova — 5.7 mi
• Las Trampas — 6.3 mi
• Chimayo — 7.5 mi