 Denetra is the traditional homeland of the Denet, the Navajo people. The Navajo are Native American people of the southwestern United States, with the Navajo nation being by far the largest land mass of any Native American tribe in the country. The traditional boundaries of the Navajo land, Denetra, are marked by four sacred mountains. They are now known as Blanca Peak to the east, Mount Taylor to the south, the San Francisco Peaks to the west, that's home to Humphreys Peak, the highest peak in Arizona, and Hesper's Peak to the north. These four sacred mountains provide deep connections between the land, spirituality, and culture in the Denet. They have a huge spiritual significance to the Navajo. They are the location of many important events in the Denet sacred stories. Their spirits, or spirits of the mountains, are believed to help cure the sick, protect the people, and bring grain. In this episode today, and after climbing the highest peak in New Mexico, we found ourselves in Cibula National Forest, home to Mount Taylor, one of the four sacred mountains, a beautiful hike with incredible views that I'm very excited to share with you today. This trail is two miles long, and it's about 718 feet of elevation gain. So we started at the trailhead after driving on some dirt road for a little bit. Yeah, we came in on the main road, then turned into a dirt road, and then we turned off the dirt road onto a bumpy road, and then we turned off the bumpy road onto the forest service road, and drove all the way almost to the top of the mountain, almost. Yeah, we're starting pretty high. We're starting at 10,600 feet or around this number, and we're going to be climbing about 700 feet. The views are already so incredible. So this is one of very, very few hikes where we get incredible views from the get go. We're excited for this hike, and we're excited to show you around. The trail is pretty shaded, and it's very well maintained, very straightforward. I mean, I don't think you can lose the trail. When we started at the trailhead, we noticed that there is a trail for hiking, and then off to the right, I think it's a mountain biking trail, because we saw a group of people with their mountain bikes going up there. We're climbing. We're definitely climbing all the way up, but it's a moderate climb. Always taking the trekking poles, because why not? But this is pretty for a random last-minute trail. This is beautiful. Look at that view behind me. Pretty incredible. And just like that, we are at the top of this trail. Ready? I'll show you the sign. I'll show you the views here. Here's the sign. That is Mount Taylor, 11,301 feet. Well, this is fantastic. I mean, this is a nice panoramic view. Again, we came up that hillside. It's kind of really exposed, really open, and then you dip into the woods here after that little campground area, and it's a totally different environment. Very pleasant, very enclosed, very, like you wouldn't know you're at 11,000 feet. You'd think you're at 3,000 feet. And then you pop out to this view, and you just see everything. I don't know what that is down there, but that's cool. I think that's where we came from. I have no idea what that's way, but weather all over the place. We were watching sandstorms blow all day when we were on the highway. Now we can just look at all of them. You see all of the wind turbines all the way there? It's pretty neat. I don't feel like burnt trees for a moment, but I forgot that that's what was out there. Let me show you the views from here. It's pretty incredible, especially for a short hike, a random hike. I didn't know what to expect, really. I just saw nice pictures on all trail, and we decided to come out here, and this is great. Got all of the views there. And then let's go to the other side. Look at that. Look at all of those incredible views. It's going to be a pretty easy way downhill, so this breeze. This hike in general is pretty cool. This is a nice fire pit. Wow. Can you imagine just camping here waking up in the morning, making some tea, coffee? Hey, who's not to say we won't? We have to make some research to figure out if there are any rules or restrictions about camping in this area, but it's definitely an area that we will consider in the future. It's pretty beautiful in here. I just can't get over how beautiful this view is. How neat. Incredible.