| A La Garita Adventure Trip Report |
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| A La Garita Adventure   | 
| Page Type: Trip Report Location: Colorado, United States, North America Date Climbed/Hiked: Jul 22, 2006 Activities: Hiking Season: Summer | Page By: COTrekker02 Created/Edited: Jul 25, 2006 / Jul 25, 2006 Object ID: 210190 Hits: 543 Loading... Page Score: 85.94% - 1 Votes Loading... Vote: Log in to vote |
An Early Start on a Beautiful Morning My wife and and I hoped to escape the summer 14er crowds this past weekend by climbing San Luis Peak in the La Garita Wilderness in south central Colorado. We left Denver at 4 pm on Friday night and arrived at the turnoff from CO 114 at 8:30 pm, navigating the remaining 30 miles of dirt road in the dusk. Contrary to popular belief, we found navigating to the Stewart Creek TH extremely easy, although we did rely on our DeLorme Gazetteer a couple of times. We arrived at the TH in the dark at 9:20 pm and found a flat spot to park the jeep. We climbed in the back and were fast asleep by 9:45 pm.
My alarm woke me at 5:30 am the next morning and I quickly woke Laurie, so we could both see the sun splash the Stewart Creek drainage as it made it's slow climb into the Colorado summer sky. While waking up on a rock outside the jeep, I observed a coyote emerge from the forest, cross the willows and alders in the basin, jump Stewart Creek and dissapear into its den. It was a great way to wake up to say the least... We dressed, ate a quick breakfast and were leaving the TH at 6:20 am, headed up the beautiful Stewart Creek drainage. This drainage is beautiful and lush, with willows, alders, and beaver dams dotting the drainage floor. We kept a keen eye out for moose, whom we're told have been introduced to this drainage, but never saw one.
We hiked at a leisurely pace up the trail, making decent time. At about 8 am we emerged from the forest and climbed above treeline, into the upper Stewart Creek drainage. We spotted several deer grazing the high slopes below Baldy Alto, and just smiled at our luck to be in this place. We made quick work of the ridge to gain the saddle below San Luis and stopped to look back into Stewart Creek drainage. We turned back to eye the remaining route to the summit and saw two groups ahead of us on the final push up the east slopes of San Luis, and we watched them push toward the summit.
With the steep saddle ridge under our belts, we floated up the last 1,000 feet on a great talus/scree trail below the east ridge up the slopes until we finally gained the ridge at about 13,850 or so, where we were rewarded with views of the entire San Juans to the west and south, as well as the West Elks to the north. The Sangre de Cristo range loomed large beyond the closer Cochetopa Hills. In a few more minutes we were standing on the summit, sharing the views with three other people and four dogs. It was about 9:45 am.
We snapped some pictures, walking around the broad summit. We snacked on some summer sausage, cheese and trail mix, as I named off other prominent peaks in view to my wife, Laurie. Our summit mates soon left and we were alone on the mountain. Not able to descend with such beautiful views, we stayed another few minutes, and during that time decided to descend into the next drainage to the southeast, Cochetopa Creek, where the Colorado Trail cuts through on its way from San Luis Pass to the east toward the Cochetopa Hills. Descending Via Another Beautiful La Garita Drainage We left the summit at 10:20 am and descended via the south slopes trail (on the way to the Creede approach TH) and followed the good climbers trail to a saddle above the Cochetopa Creek drainage. We intersected the Colorado Trail (Skyline section) and followed it into this drainage. It was another beautiful drainage, and we were glad we'd chosen this route back to the car. We had gone 200 + degrees around Organ mountain, and we commented on how cool the mountain looked looming above both drainages we had hiked.
We pressed on, admiring the various wildflowers; Indian Paintbrush, Forget-me-nots, and others whose names I don't know. We looked for widlife, but didn't see any. After two hours of hiking, we met our first visitor in this drainage, and only the fourth person of the day. After hiking another 45 minutes or so, we met two gentlemen on their way into the wilderness. At the three hour mark of hiking after leaving the summit, we passed through a gate and entered a large long meadow, as far as the eye could see. We passed grazing cows on this never-ending trail. Finally after almost an hour of skirting this long pasture, we made the Eddiesville TH and hiked the .2 mile back to our car, supremely exhausted! It was 2:55 pm and the sun was still baking the land below it, including two tired hikers sans sunscreen... We figured our grand hike was about 14-15 miles RT, a great day hike on a beautiful day!
We drove the Jeep up the road a piece to a shady pullout and grilled some burgers. The best burger I'd eaten in quite some time. We contemplated staying in the area to camp, but opted to drive into Gunny for a cool hotel room, soft bed and microbrew at the Gunny Brewery. So, we drove the long 30 miles back to CO 114 and headed northweat to Gunnison, enjoying every minute of it. We made it to Gunnison at 6 pm. We spent the next day lounging at Emerald Lake below Schofield pass near Crested Butte, and I wetted my fly line in the lake, even coaxing a couple rainbows to take my fly. Needless to say, it was a weekend of memories, great memories.
We will be back to the beautiful La Garita Wilderness. If you seek relative solitude, privacy and superb mountain beauty, this is your spot... Images
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San Juan Range
