Wheeler Peak, Mountain summit in Sangre de Cristo range, New Mexico, United States

Wheeler Peak is the highest point in New Mexico, reaching 13,167 feet (4,013 m) in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. Its upper slopes are bare gray and brown rock with small snow patches in gullies, while dense conifer forest covers the lower flanks. The broad, rounded summit rises just north of Mount Walter.

The peak was named in 1950 to honor Major George Montague Wheeler, who conducted geological surveys across the Southwest during the 1870s. These surveys helped map the geological features of the region.

The Taos Pueblo people call the mountain móxwoluną or poxwiap’íanenemą. Blue Lake, on the mountain, is a sacred emergence site for the pueblo, and much of the area south of the peak lies on Taos Pueblo land.

The standard route follows the north ridge from the Taos Ski Valley parking lot, east along an old road to Bull-of-the-Woods Meadow, then south over Mount Walter to the summit. A second route climbs from Williams Lake via a switchback trail built in 2011. A third starts near Red River, 6.4 miles south on NM 578 and 1.3 miles on FR 58, then about 7 miles on Forest Trail 91 past Lost Lake and Horseshoe Lake.

Mount Walter, just north of the summit, rises to 13,141 feet but has only about 53 feet of prominence, so it is not counted as an independent peak. Hikers on the north ridge route cross its top and often mistake it for Wheeler Peak. The summit holds a register and a plaque naming Major George Montague Wheeler.