Mileage: 5 miles to summit
Elevation: trail head 10, 400 fto – summit 12,703 feet
The trail starts at the Taos Ski Valley in the Bull of the Woods parking lot. The trail is fairly steep at the beginning, and ascends some elevation for the 2 miles up to the Bull of the Woods pasture. At that point the Gold Hill trail leads off to the West and the Bull of the Woods Trail up to Wheeler continues and loops around to the Southeast past Frazier Mountain. The Gold Hill trail leading out of the Bull of the Woods pasture traverses switchbacks up a fairly steep incline, but the trail is in good condition, through a nice forest. The slope opens up into the view to the left where you look back onto the Ski Valley and Wheeler. The trail at this point becomes more level and meanders through a series of medows and woods eventually leading up more steeply to the fist bench below Gold Hill. On the trail we passed remnants of mining, test pits, possible collapsed mine shafts, some old equipment and some large log structures.
It’s pretty amazing imagining what it took to get that industry going at 12,00 ft! On the ridge looking up at Gold Hill, Rachel and I saw what looked like either a very large coyote or 
a wolf. He/She was on the ridge standing still looking at us and then trotted off down to towards Lobo Ridge. We were excited by the possibility that it was a wolf. It had coyote coloring, but it looked larger than most coyotes. I tried to snap a picture, but it was already too far away. After a break and some lunch we hiked the rest of the spectacular way up to the summit of Gold Hill. The name, Gold Hill, is certainly deceiving because when you are standing on top of it, looking out, far and wide in all four direction, you feel every bit of 12,703 feet that Gold Hill boasts. Chased off the summit by threatening clouds we returned the same way we came.
