Mount Elbert – Hightest Colorado Mountain

Hiking mount elbert south ridge trail, Colorado 14ers

Photo: Heading up Mt. Elbert.  Still a couple hours away.  June 2012

 

Mt elbert summit, Colorado

Photo: On the 14, 433 ft summit of Mt. Elbert, the highest point in Colorado.  June 2012

After Handies Peak, we were a bit indecisive on where to head next.  We were thinking of the twin summits of Sunshine and Redcloud, just down the road from where we already were, but driving past the trailhead, the area looked like a zoo, and it still being early in the morning, the cooler running out of ice, and not wanting to sit in the back of my truck all afternoon, we hit the road.  Initially we had planned to hike Scarp ridge the next day, but the photos in the guide book proved to be somewhat more scenic that what we found, so motivation was mostly lost.  And there was a fair bit of smoke filling up the sky so the thought of carrying my camera gear all day when I knew I probably wouldn’t be taking any photos didn’t inspire me much.  So after spending the night up there, it was off to Mt. Elbert in the morning.

Being Colorado’s highest mountain at 14,433 feet, I was expecting it to be a bit more crowded, but as we pulled up to the trailhead it was mostly empty.  Another night camping in my truck and then at the crack of dawn we were headed up the mountain.  It was another day with a fair amount of smoke and haze from the wildfire’s so I didn’t take to many photos.  It was still nice to at least be the highest person in Colorado for a few minutes.  The hike down was hot and dusty. Passed a few groups of some sort of scouts with way too heavy packs and sweating away under the hot sun.  Hope they at least found some water to fill up their bottles.

Next up: a stormy day on Mt. Sneffels…

Mt elbert panoramic photo

Photo: Panoramic view from summit of Mt. Elbert, Colorado.  June 2012

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