Colorado adventures

[headsizeburrito]

My wife was in Colorado last week for work, so I tagged along to go play outside! I also invited my dad to join me since he recently had to cancel a week long backpacking trip in Canada due to illness. Due to a combination of hiking with others and playing it safe with the elevation (I haven't been over 4k in the last year living in the mid-Atlantic region and not above 11.5k/San Gorgonio in 15 years) I didn't do anything too hardcore, but still had a great time and got a good taste of the state. I had four days of outdoor activities, still working on putting posts together for each, but this is the first minor one. Others to follow in the next couple days.

Mt Evans - 14,271ft

Want to drive up a 14er? Sure you do, hiking is for suckers! My dad and I only had a half day, so we decided to do this rather than any actual hiking. I was expecting it to be silly and while it was crowded, it was still pretty cool for the views and a nice first taste of the environment. First things first is a good breakfast.

Partway up is a nice little visitor center with an alpine garden.

We saw several groups of mountain goats along the road, they are quite used to people and traffic. The one in the middle has a tracking collar on, which I only noticed when I went through my pictures.

This sign (not at the actual summit) says 14,130, Wikipedia says 14,271, Forest Service maps say 14,258, 14ers.com says 14,264. The world may never know.

I thought the image on this sign was funny. Don't mess with mountain goats. They will mess you up right back.

Another warning sign. I did feel a little fuzzy head sensation for a bit around the summit, but it was mild and went away pretty quickly.

The actual summit, with a short trail, above the parking lot. You don't have to walk far! There are also actual trails to the summit as well, but who has time for that?

Looking back from the short summit trail towards the parking lot. The summit area also has the cool looking Crest House, which mostly burned down in 1979. Near it is the Meyer-Womble Observatory, apparently the third highest optical/infrared observatory in the world, but is no longer in operation and will eventually be demolished.

And finally, an actual view from the summit.

More to come (actual hikes!) soon.

[Girl Hiker]

Nice!. I am dying to go back to Colorado. Love the pics!

[headsizeburrito]

Rocky Mountain National Park - Lots o Lakes Loop

My wife was in Colorado to work, but did manage to get one day for fun, so she picked Rocky Mountain NP. Here is a GPS track of where we went for context, basically lots of lakes wedged into cool valleys, starting from the Bear Lake Trailhead.

Basically we just went to a series of scenic lakes, all were lovely.

They were also crowded. Beauty + easy access means lots of people. Normally this makes me a bit cranky as I usually avoided crowded places, but it was a nice day in a nice place with my wife and dad, so I suppressed any minor grumpiness and had a good time.

Look up one of the valleys with Longs Peak (a well known 14er) in the distance.

Some nice boulder hopping to one of the lakes.

My favorite tree of the day, great shape and color in the exposed wood sections.

Nature!

[headsizeburrito]

Rocky Mountain National Park - Lots o Lakes Loop p.2


More lakes

At one point some elk blocked the trail, then just hung out along it so we could enjoy them.

Alberta Falls

So that was our day in Rocky Mountain NP. 9.2 easy but very scenic miles. I'd love to go back and hit some of the peaks and ridges up above the lakes! Two more days of Colorado to follow when I get to them.

[headsizeburrito]

Huron Peak, Sawatch Range - 14,003 (14ers.com) or 14,012 (Wikipedia)

Again with different numbers on the peak heights, you'd think with the Colorado obsession with 14ers they would have settled on an elevation, but even the definition of a 14er itself is somewhat fuzzy due to varying requirements of topographic prominence etc. Anyway, we wanted to do a 14er while in Colorado because that's what you do. The highest peaks aren't necessarily the most interesting, the close ones are too crowded, some were too far away, and some had more exciting or challenging routes but were ruled out just to keep things simple and safe as out of towners on a short trip. We settled on Huron Peak because it's considered one of the most scenic, has a moderate approach, is near other stuff we were interested in, and reasonable distance from the crowds of Denver.

We stayed in Leadville as our base for two days of day hikes, which provided a little bonus acclimatization time since the town is at 10,000ft. I was amused to see this brochure in the hotel lobby.

The standard advice for Colorado hiking in this season is to start around dawn and heading back down by noon/very early afternoon to avoid the frequent afternoon thunderstorms. But the hotel didn't server breakfast until 6:30am, so we got up at 6:30am. Also the weather forecast was good. We reached the trailhead just before 9am.

The official trailhead is at the end of a 4x4 road and we parked at the lower parking area because the road looked a little iffy for our rental. I'm glad we did it that way because it was a pleasant walk with some nice scenery and was a good warmup for the climb, which starts right at the trailhead. We took the standard Northwest Slopes route.

Nice views along the road walk in.

Official trailhead

The trail starts climbing right away and you emerge from the trees fairly quickly to great views and a nice meadow that still had plenty of wildflowers.

A naturally formed crevice garden from a split boulder. Saw man made versions of this at the Denver Botanic Garden (recommended!) but even better to see it out in nature.

Looking back over the meadow before climbing again.

After the meadow you are mostly into bare ground, switchbacking up the slope, with great views along the way.

Another view from higher up looking over the meadow to some surrounding terrain. The slope here was full of pikas sqeaking away, a sound I've missed!

The steepest section is right before the summit, with some loose rock here and there but nothing tricky and no exposure. I did use my poles descending this part because the loose dry soil can be a bit slippery.

[headsizeburrito]

Summit panorama (be sure to view full size, it seems Tapatalk is now doing some weird gallery thing where it doesn't get any bigger until you click it a second time, which is annoying)

Awesome view in all directions, I can see why people recommend this peak! We saw about 20 people total and it seemed every other group had a dog with them. Impossible not to be up there looking out and not think about all the other peaks and potential routes you can see from there. On the way down we saw a pair of mountain goats and I found a radio dropped on the trail. I keyed it up and asked if anyone lost a radio. Somebody responded and we met up down the trail so I could return it.

Back at the car we arrived the same time somebody else did, who said they were returning from hitting some nearby peaks mostly off trail. Turns out he was Colorado in person form. I offered him a post hike cookie and he offered us local IPAs from the cooler in his Subaru, while wearing a Patagonia logo hat. We ended up talking a while and he grew up in the Vail area, talked about how everything is crowded now, and he used to be a massage therapist and now grows weed since it was legalized. The Colorado stereotypes might be kind of true, but they aren't necessarily a bad thing!

Post hike cookie and beer.

Trip stats: 10.4mi, 3,700ft gain/loss, 6h40m.
Trash found and packed out: Plastic cup, food wrapper, bite valve for a hydration pack.

[dima]

Thanks for posting. It looks super nice up there. As a New Mexican, it always irked me that NM has a grand total of 0 14ers, while Colorado has a lot (20? 30?). While the Southernmost 14er in CO (Culebra) is just a few measely miles North of the arbitrary, straight-line border between the two states.

[headsizeburrito]

CO officially has 53 14ers, plus five more less official ones:

To be ranked, a peak must rise at least 300 feet above the saddle that connects it to the nearest 14er peak (if another exists nearby). This guideline has been in use in Colorado for some time. The following peaks are not ranked because they do not fit this criteria, but they are on this 14er list because they are named and recognized on USGS maps:

https://www.14ers.com/photos/photos_14ers1.php

That said, 14ers aren't that cool anymore if you are an Official Colorado Badass(tm). I'm told the 14ers are all too popular now, so the real action is the 13ers, of which there are several hundred, more than enough to keep you busy.

That's actually true, but the real real action is linkups like Nolan's 14, which I'd love to try some day:

Time records: https://fastestknowntime.com/route/nolans-14-co
Route: http://www.mattmahoney.net/nolans14/
Article about it: https://www.outsideonline.com/1926736/y ... s-14-route

[headsizeburrito]

Missouri Lakes/Fancy Pass/Fancy Peak Loop, Holy Cross Wilderness

This was my last hiking day of my Colorado trip, the goal was just to find something near Leadville with nice scenery and different terrain than just tagging a summit like we did the day before with Huron Peak. Some research led me to the Missouri Lakes/Fancy Pass Loop (info here, another trip report/gallery here) and it looked like it ticked all the boxes, plus it didn't require backtracking on the drive from Leadville back to Denver that evening. Looking at the map I saw that Fancy Peak (a minor 13er) would be a short detour and a fun way to get off trail a little, so we decided to tack that on if time allowed.

We did the route clockwise, which starts up a dirt road before reaching the wilderness boundary. A couple miles in we reached the debris field of an avalanche from the winter which was warned about on a sign at the trailhead. There were a ton of downed trees burying the trail, but luckily there is a well established bypass that is easy to follow and doesn't cost any time. From here you also get your first big views of the surrounding ridges, with Savage Peak overlooking it all. We didn't see every minor lake and pond that makes up Missouri Lakes, but the trail passes the main ones, which are very pretty nestled among the trees, meadows, and wildflowers. Continuing up to Missouri Pass the views really open up and once you see over the other side you get a great view of Treasure Vault Lake and a wide meadow.

My dad knew I wanted to tag Fancy Peak and we were making good time, so he proposed that I go ahead to that and we'd meet at Fancy Pass when I was done. I was happy to go with that plan because as much as I enjoyed our casual pace over the last couple days of hiking, I was itching to push myself a little more physically and do an off trail peak along the way. I kept a good pace across the meadow, but often had to hit the breaks anyway to appreciate a nice view or wildflower. Looking back on the way up to Fancy Pass I spotted a group of nine mountain goats, my first and only ones of the day. The obvious route to Fancy Peak is to just follow the ridge from the saddle of Fancy Pass more or less directly to the peak. This starts out with a short but fun section of steep class 3 scrambling, but then starts to level out until after a short traverse of the slope onto easy to moderate class 2 along the ridge. There isn't any real exposure after the first class 3 and the only hazard is potentially twisting an ankle on the loose rock here and there along the ridge. The summit has a nice 360 view and a summit register that wasn't too full but was visited as recently as the day before. After a few pictures and a snack I returned the way I came, rejoining my dad at Fancy Pass.

The descent from fancy pass is pretty steep and due to shade had a few small patches of snow left. Most could be avoided, but it was a fun chance to get in a little standing glissade. Fancy Lake is tucked in among the surrounding ridges, a nice contrast to the more open lakes up to that point. From Fancy Lake it's pretty much a steady descent among the trees back to the trailhead to close the loop. It's pleasant enough, but the first leg of the loop has a lot more variety and views, so I think it works well clockwise to maximize that stuff earlier in the day and return this way at the end for a quicker finish. Back at the car I was a little sad that I forgot to bring some post hike treats, but very satisfied with the last hike of our trip. Great views, nice terrain variety, still some good wildflowers for late September, wildlife, and a bonus peak! I would definitely recommend the route.

Trip stats: 10.4mi, 6h28m, 3,300ft gain/loss

Trash found and packed out: One old steel pull tab can of Budweiser

Wilderness Boundary

I just like this style of bridge...

Entering the avalanche field, Savage Peak supervising

One of the many Missouri Lakes

Panorama on the way up to Missouri Pass

Lots of wildflowers still

Looking back on the way up Missouri Pass

The view over the other side of Missouri Pass

Fancy Pass and Fancy Peak in the distance

I just like this kind of vegetation

[headsizeburrito]

Initial scramble from Fancy Pass up the ridge to Fancy Peak

Before long it gets easy

Fancy Peak summit panorama

Back at Fancy Pass, making friends with marmots

Last glissade of the summer

Fancy Lake

Nice outflow of Fancy Lake, would love to see this when the water is really flowing

Grand finale fungus

[tekewin]

Great stuff. So jelly about CO, still on the some day list.

Did you feel any altitude effects from driving to the first 14er? That seems like an altitude trap.

Sweet bull elk. I think the only males I've seen were juvies with their mothers.

[walker]

Thanks for posting. It looks super nice up there. As a New Mexican, it always irked me that NM has a grand total of 0 14ers, while Colorado has a lot (20? 30?). While the Southernmost 14er in CO (Culebra) is just a few measely miles North of the arbitrary, straight-line border between the two states.

The northern Sangre de Cristos actually belong in NM so they count, right? ? Those are some of the best 13ers-14ers ever, but don't tell anybody!

While there are tons of truly glorious 14ers all over Colorado, it's kind of hard to find one more than a couple of miles from some kind of 4x4 road, so solitude is not always an option.

I'll take Truchas traverse, Wheeler Peak, Jicarita Peak on any day for a beautiful outing in a remote setting - NM wilderness is pretty hard to beat!

[walker]

That said, 14ers aren't that cool anymore if you are an Official Colorado Badass(tm). I'm told the 14ers are all too popular now, so the real action is the 13ers, of which there are several hundred, more than enough to keep you busy.

I think I'll borrow Dima's pole of inaccessibility idea and add that by doing high 13ers that take at least a day or two just to get to the base you gain extra street cred. Vestal peak-Arrow peak is a good example of that noise. There's probably some gnarly triathlete breaking the sound barrier and doing that stuff in 24 hours now.

But seriously, some of the best mountains ever fall just shy of the magic number 14,000 which may or may not be accurate anyway judging by the examples you gave. Thanks for bringing us along for the ride!

[headsizeburrito]

Did you feel any altitude effects from driving to the first 14er? That seems like an altitude trap.

The drive from Denver (~5k) to the summit of Evans (14k) is only about an hour and a half, so it's certainly a quick ascent. I started noticing my head feeling a little fuzzy around 13k, but it was fairly mild. We weren't up there too long and I stopped noticing it on the way down, either just from a bit of descent, getting used to it, or a little of both. When we did Huron (14K) two days later I could feel my body working a little harder and breathing a little more, but didn't feel anything in my head like when we drove to Evans. I had originally planned on doing the Holy Cross Wilderness hike before Huron because it is between 10k and 12.5k to give more time before Huron, but we swapped the days because the weather forecast was better the first day and we wanted to get the best possible views. That ended up working out fine and we didn't have any issues with the elevation.

I had initially planned to be very conservative about the elevation because I've had mixed reactions to it in the past. When I lived in WA growing up I did Rainier and actually got sick enough to vomit just at Paradise Camp at 10k (that actually helped me sleep through a windstorm that destroyed 2/4 tents in our group, but that's another story) but felt fine the next day and had no issues on the summit. I wasn't bothered by the elevation when I did Baker (10k) or Adams (12k) either around the same time. Then when I first moved to CA I did Gorgonio for the first time and got a headache and some moderate nausea. Since then I've had no issues on the usual SoCal peaks, but there is certainly a difference between Gorgonio and 13k-14k so I wasn't sure how it would work out. Luckily it wasn't a problem!

The Elk were quite mellow, I guess like the mountain goats at the popular peaks they are quite used to people. I was pretty happy to get a nice view of the bull!

Walker - The magic number 14 certainly gets all the attention, but there are tons of great peaks all over which may be as good or better, plus much less crowded. You are certainly right that many in CO aren't very far from trailheads so the barrier for many is drive time from the Denver area, not actual difficulty. If you look at this list, you see that most are easy class 2 and less than 10 miles, and nearly all are under 15mi.

https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/routeselector.php

Hitting all the 14ers would be a fun way to see different places around the state, but if you want solitude you need to do the work of picking longer approaches to places most people have never heard of. Tons of adventure if you look for it!

[Sean]

A great series of reports, thanks! It looks like you saw more animals than people on the trail. 13ers are the new 14ers! And Colorado is the new California!

[walker]

Maybe the fact that many Colorado 14ers are not of great technical difficulty makes them a more accessible gateway to the mountains for a wider segment of the population - Years ago, I ran into the same family on three separate outings, each time, they were taking their seven-year-old up some of the most difficult 14ers in the state. I think they started out on the 14er list with drive-ups and walkups at an early age and by seven he'd graduated to 4th-5th class roped routes. - This was about 20 years ago so if he stuck with it, he must be a pretty badass mountain man by now.
In comparison, California 14ers are fewer in number and a steeper curve - Even the easy, entry-level ones can tend to be a pretty long slog and not necessarily close to home, so maybe that keeps people from getting up to the skill level that everyone and their dog can do in Colorado.
Crazy nearby example was one day when I climbed Whitney via mountaineer's route, took a break with about 60 others on top, then saw the nice stable weather was going to last so descended and found my way up Russell next door - which is actually 14+ elevation. I was accompanied on the beautiful pointy summit by a pika, a few ravens and a falcon. Looking back at Whitney summit, the crowd had grown to about 100. I just sat there and scratched my head for a while and enjoyed the same view from a different angle. I bet if Russell were in Colorado, there would be lots more people on it and all the other 12-13-14 peaks around 'cause they's all a bunch of heavy-duty, hardcore mountain athletes out there. I wish I could keep up! Thanks for sharing the journey!

[JeffH]

These are great reports, seems like a fine week for hiking. Staying in Leadville certainly helped with acclimation since as you mentioned it's at 10K. There's a cool old bar there, the huge wooden bar is from the 1800's and they claim that Doc Holliday was a regular customer. Also Quincy's for prime rib - the best post hike dinner around!

[headsizeburrito]

Yeah, Leadville seemed pretty cool, I would have liked to spend more time checking out the town (and of course more time hiking around there too!). I did enjoy some good pizza at a placed called Mountain High Pies that I would recommend!

[jarredorlane]

Gorgeous photos!