Epic Adventure 2018 - Part 1

Summit Peak 13,300'

Archuleta County Highpoint
Southern San Juan Mountain Range

7/14/2018 

In our continuing quest to climb all the Colorado County highpoints, I zeroed in on a cluster of peaks in the South San Juan Mountains.  Summit, Conejos, and Bennett Peaks are all fairly close together. We had planned to do all 3 in one weekend, but sometimes, plans change. This "man trip" consisted of Avery, Scott, and myself.

We left COS around 3pm, drove straight to our camping area- Stunner Campground.
While I think Stunner might be a bit overstated, it's a nice little camping area. Here we were, in July on a weekend- there was only 1 other person here. We had the place virtually to ourselves. It's a free campground and it has a pit toilet!

View from our campsite

The spot by the road was flat and soft

Anyway, woke up at 5am and got on our way. From the campground, the trailhead area is 15-20 minute drive up gentle dirt roads. And I must say, the dirt roads were in great shape when we went there this year. Easy driving for any type of vehicle.

The night was.. interesting. It rained pretty well for an hour or so, as I drifted in and out of sleep. Not sure exactly how much. The only thing I know is that when we woke up EVERYTHING was soaked. But we were dry inside my tent. Best $200 I ever spent.

Sunrise, one of the benefits of getting up early

The parking area could accommodate half a dozen vehicles, maybe more. We were the only people here.

It quickly became apparent that there wasn't much of a trail in places. We were bushwhacking through wet grass and plants. Luckily I had some GPS waypoints to follow.

One weird aspect of this trail. It is VERY lightly traveled. It's not well established. It's not easy to follow. Because of this, and the wet weather - we ended up soaked. My boots filled up with water. I ended up stopping at least 3 times before the summit to wring water out of my socks. Somehow, we did the whole hike without me getting blisters!

Forest typical of the lower elevations. Lots of beetle kill

You climb into this beautiful basin 

We found a trail, then lost the trail, then found it again. It traverses a slope, then comes across a basin. All the plants were soaking wet.

At this point the trail was a muddy rut

Heading up above treeline. Tons of beetle kill in the area.

This is a beautiful place.

Right after this photo was taken, something amazing happened. We heard elk bugling. It sounded awesome, but kind of eerie in a way too. We couldn't see them, but we knew they were around. And I must say, in climbing over 70 summits, we have never heard elk bugling as we were heading up in the morning. Quite a treat!

Summit Peak comes into view, finally.

There it is! Summit Peak dead ahead.

I believe this is "the Unicorn" and Montezuma. Typical San Juan beauty.

Cool view, and look - there is wildlife there 

Zoom in a little, we see 4 elk!

There's kind of a trail here, but I believe this is part of the CDT

Looking Southeast

Happy hikers

After leaving the CDT, you literally just head up the steep, grassy slope. When you attain the ridge, the slope eases significantly.

After bashing up a sleep grassy slope, we are nearly there

Once we attained the ridge, it was an easy stroll to the summit. The exposure on the north side was intense!

The exposure on the one side was steep

Very Steep dropoff straight ahead

Looking WSW

Standing on the summit, I was reminding how big this world is, and how small we are. In every direction I look and I see the beauty of nature, not yet ruined by mankind. It's a blessing to see such a rugged, wild landscape. The weather was extremely mild. A little chilly, slight breeze. Nice enough to sit and enjoy the view and soak it all in.

Looking North

This especially rugged and craggy summit demanded our attention, and our intrigue.

Northerly Panorama

Avery about to top out

The same elk, but there are more now!

Northeast from summit

Rio Grande pyramid, distant center

There are still lots of wildflowers

We are but a spec in this large place. Our car is parked distant left.

Flowers

On the way back I decided to bushwhack down the slope and cut out a bit of distance. It worked. We made it back in only 3 miles (instead of 4), and saved a bunch of time in the process.

One of the many nice waterfalls in the area

Some nice pools to swim in, if freezing water is your thing

There was a closed gate here... the most robust part of the fence

So, because of some strange circumstances, we left and went home. Basically, the dog got injured from a bunch of small cuts, and was bleeding a lot. We decided to let him get some rest instead of dragging out the trip.

We stopped at 3 Barrel Brewing in Del Norte. The food was decent and so was the beer.

BUT- the southern San Juan mountains are beautiful, rugged, isolated, and uncrowded. The peaks are sublime. We saw no one while hiking. The trail barely existed.  It was a good trip.

Ice Lakes Basin - Part 2

EA2014 - Day 2

Golden Horn, Vermillion Peak, US Grant Peak.

First Reflections

The reward of an early rising

 

Old mining camp ruins from a prior era

Vermillion center, Golden Horn right

Vermillion peak at right

Vermillion Peak (L) and Golden Horn (R)

We are heading for the saddle in the middle.

 

The "crux" of Golden horn wasn't much of one.

Looking at the face of Vermillion Peak

Heading up Golden Horn. It was easier than it looks.

Pretty easy climbing to the summit.

(Camera a little foggy) Bypassing a spire on the ridge

US Grant Peak center-right

Looking over at Vermillion

The Summit of Golden Horn

Looking west from GH

Show me your horns!

A surprisingly pleasant trail up the back side of Vermillion

Now we just have to get on top of that

Ice Lake is distant left

The Mt. Wilson massif, featuring 2 1/2  14ers

It's goofy but I had to

Lake Hope from the summit of Vermillion

coming down Vermillion- not sure why the pic turned out this way

A hundred years ago someone was relying on these rocks for shelter from wind, ice and snow

Scott and Golden Horn

Fuller Lake

Ulysses S. Grant Peak (US Grant) center

Alpine marsh above Ice Lake

So photogenic though

We got back at our tent around 1030 AM. We decided that the weather looked OK and we were going to head for the Island Lake basin to bag more peaks. I ate some mountain house cajun beans and rice and then we got our water and packs ready for the next adventure. We left about 12:30 PM.

This is Island Lake

The climb to the saddle above Island lake was steep, and the top portion was quite unstable.

You can see the saddle center-right here. You climb steeply up to this saddle and then trun and climb the ridge.

Clouds are gathering

So I guess at this point I need to mention what happened. Scott and I had a disagreement about what to do here. I wanted to climb US Grant Peak, and he did not. I think between the possibly sketchy weather and the unknown route, he was not up for it. But I was. We had an argument, I went left, he went right. In hindsight what I did was pretty stupid. The route up this ridge is not that great: It's loose, pretty much unmarked and untraveled; and the crux was really crappy. Let me tell you about this crux; imagine if you will a narrow ledge, above this is outward sloping rock with no good handholds. Below this is a steep drop-off to the sloped side of the mountain. Covering this narrow ledge are pizza sized oddly shaped UNSTABLE rocks and dirt. It was the stuff of nightmares. I (and my family) am lucky I survived. Somehow taking pics of everything was not my top priority so I only have a few photos of the way up and down US Grant. I did reach the summit, but it was probably a fool's errand for me.

The initial route is not exactly encouraging

I just love the colors. Smooth and grassy on one side, loose and rocky on the other.

This is the crux. It's the worst thing I've ever done, although a fall might have been survivable

And we are skipping to the summit of US Grant Peak

Looking back to Ice Lake basin, Ice Lake is hidden behind the ridge at the bottom.

Since I was solo, this is a summit selfie

Island Lake from above

 Mt. Wilson, Gladstone Peak, and Wilson Peak (L to R)

A loose-looking sub-peak NW of US Grant

Relaxing, Colorado style at Island Lake

We got back to our tent and packed up as quickly as we could, drinking a beer as we hastily stuffed our gear. By this point we were quite tired, and we knew there was more stuff to come. We wanted to get down because we were so cold and tired the night before, and thought retreating to a lower altitude would be nice.

Relaxing, Colorado-Style at Ice Lake. Those puppies are barking.

Massive rocks and little waterfalls

Not too many pictures on the way down. We were tired and had been up since 4:30 AM. We hustled back to the car, drove to Montrose, ate some Qdoba, and then drove 6 hours home, getting back right at midnight. This was one of the most "action packed" days I've ever done! Scaling 3 13ers hiking and driving back all the way from the middle of the San Juans.