Despite the current rash of Southwestern wildfires, there are some areas still open for hiking. The Pecos being closed, the party I was hiking with switched to Latir Peak and Wheeler Peak north of Taos NM. Taos is located just below the Colorado-New Mexico border, so I did a lightweight base-camp trip in the Latir Peak wilderness. It's small (think a 5mi x 5 mi x 5 mi triangle trail system so not sure it's worth a lightweight "trail report"), so we did a basecamp sticking to the main lake about 5 miles from the TH (all uphill, so all you can see is your fellow hikers heels up the trail). Rainy start at lunchtime, so just set up shelter after arriving at about 3 pm and crashed in the tents as the rain fell.
Foggy morning for breakfast 
Dayhiking around and through Latir Mesa Day 2
The Latir Lakes are on private land with a different (vehicle) access for a fee, so we just looked from the higher USFS land. I saturated this but still did not get the turquoise blue of the lakes
Up on the mesa
Mama goat on Latir Mesa Peak w/ baby
Colorado/New Mexico border to the north:
Day 3 – Baldy mountain peak bagging
At the end of Day 3 we went into Taos and carb up for the highest point in NM, Wheeler Peak
Day 4 – Wheeler Peak (via the relatively new Williams Lake trail), so here I overlook the Taos Ski Valley as moving up towards Wheeler Pk
Wheeler Pk
Treat at Taos Cow (nationally ranked ice cream parlor) in Arroyo Seco north of Taos, NM.
I would recommend this as an alternative to the Pecos wilderness, especially if a backpacker did not have 3 full days to do a loop in the Pecos. Could do Latir as an overnight or 2 loop using the Bull trail/Main trail intersection but the steepness of the trails out of Heart Lake shouldn't be underestimated. We went off-trail quite a bit but there are many loose rocks for those using lighter footwear.
