Vacation Idea: Llama Trekking

While in New Mexico one early summer day, my grandson and I took our two llamas to lunch.

Actually, the llamas carried our lunch up the pretty trail in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, while we walked ahead of them holding their soft rope leads. Llamas can carry 35 percent of their body weight, but they don’t carry bodies.

Sam, who is nearly 6 years old, has never been much of a trekker. In the city, after three blocks of trailing behind me with histrionic exhaustion, he pleads, "Carry me!" and that’s usually the end of the walk. So I asked Stuart Wilde at Wild Earth Llama Adventures what our chances were of having to carry Sam most of the way up the mountain trail.

"We assure you," he promised, "Sam will be so interested in leading his llama that he’ll never ask to be carried."

After introducing Sam to Domino, his own personal llama for the trek, Wilde gave Sam some llama goodies — they looked like kernels of corn — to feed Domino from his open hand. From that moment, they bonded. At the end of our six-hour hike, Sam was as surprised as we were to hear that he had hiked five miles, from altitude 8,000 feet to 9,000 feet and back again, without so much as one, "I'm tired."

Here are three reasons to consider llama-trekking with your grandchildren:

1. Kids love them. Although Sam’s llama weighed 300 pounds, and Sam weighs 40, as soon as Wilde told him he could pat Domino’s furry neck and lead him anywhere on the trail with Domino following obediently, Sam felt no fear. Llamas are lovable; the feeling is mutual. Sam smiled early in the hike and marveled, "Domino likes me!"

Llama hug

Many llamas, such as those on our hike, are bred for gentleness. Some spit when nervous, but Wilde has trained this group not to do that. By the middle of the trip, Sam was hugging Domino around the neck. We were amused to hear the llama "hum," which they do when nervous about predators. Llamas are prey for a number of creatures, Wilde explained, and they’re always on the watch for mountain lions and the like. They don’t really sleep much, either, for this reason; they tend to stay in a group and guard their backs from danger. When Stuart told us that llamas were stressed-out beings, my son Christian joked with Sam that "they're just like Grandma, always worried."

2. They carry our packs so it makes hiking easier. Our group of hikers brought heavy water bottles, additional warm clothing in case of changes in temperature, rain gear, cameras, and the like. Loading the llamas with all of this made our hiking a breeze.

3. Llamas have great footing on uneven mountain trails. Native to the Andes, they are sometimes called "high-mountain camels." They are sure-footed on crumbling rocky paths, over fallen tree branches, even narrow wooden footbridges built over creeks. We may trip occasionally, but they won't.

Here are some llama treks around the country:

Wild Earth Llama Adventures, New Mexico
We took the organization's "Take a Llama to Lunch" day-hike, but Wild Earth also offers three-day-wilderness llama camping trips. On both trips, experienced naturalist-guides point out native plants, local wildlife, natural history, forest ecology and wilderness skills.

Family fun: Julie, Sam, and Christian

The night before our trek, we stayed at the San Geronimo Lodge, built in 1925 as the first resort hotel in Taos, surrounded by fruit trees and the Acequia Madre. We had a delicious dinner of chile relleno and pepper-crusted buffalo strip steak at Doc Martin’s Restaurant in the historic Taos Inn. After the hike next day, we ate another great northern New Mexican-style dinner of shrimp in a green chile risotto, and bedded down as well, at the Sagebrush Inn, built in 1931. Georgia O’Keeffe painted in the third-floor room during her six-month visit to Taos before she moved to the area permanently.

Lodging & Llamas, California
Guided llama treks along the Mendocino-Redwood coast area of northern California can be arranged through Lodging & Llamas. Guests stay at one of three vacation-rental cottages two minutes south of Fort Bragg and Noyo Harbor, enjoy watching pygmy goats on the property, but trek with llamas. Provide your own lunch, or opt for its gourmet meal.

Hurricane Creek Llama Treks, Oregon
Four- to-six-day treks in the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest of Oregon are available through Hurricane Creek Llama Treks. Trips that revolve around base camp are recommended for children at least 6 years old. This outfit offers a 20 percent discount for children, ages 6 to 18, who are accompanied by an adult.

Applewood Inn & Llama Trekking, Virginia
The Glasgow, Va., Applewood Inn posts portraits of its llamas on its website. Guests, ages 6 and older, can schedule a two-hour lunch outing in the Shenandoah Valley. The Inn offers llama treks year-round to view spring wildflowers, summer birds, fall foliage, and the Blue Ridge Mountains dusted with snow in winter.

Berkshire Mountain Llama Hike, Massachusetts
Hawkmeadow Farm in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts says two of its llamas, Equalizer and Magic, are content to be led by children as young as 2 or 3. Llama hikes run one to three hours on well-maintained trails in the forested hills surrounding the farm, which offers swimming in a spring-fed pond.

Storybook Farm Llama Trekking, Wisconsin
Guests as young as 2 have led Storybook Farm llamas through the North Woods of Phillips, Wisc. The two-mile trek takes about an hour. And for those who dare, you and your llama can attempt the jumps, bridges, and turns of the mini-obstacle course set up at the B&B. The current record is just under two minutes.