One of many
trip reports under the
SilGro home page for Alan Silverstein and Cathie
Grow.
Email me at
ajs@frii.com.
Last update: April 2, 2024
(Previous trip report: 1989_0901-01_MountAdams.htm)
(A
Fourteener
trip report.)
After hiking Mount Adams and departing the Willow Lake area, Bruce Tepley and I continued south toward Crestone Needle, one of the more impressive peaks in Colorado. This time I climbed it for my second time the long way, from the west. It involved gaining nearly 6000' and camping out two nights. As it happened, it was the only peak we visited from that trailhead.
Friday, Sep 1: The previous evening, Bruce Tepley and I discovered to our delight that there was a public hot shower in the laundromat in Crestone ($1), and that the grocery store was pretty well stocked. It was too late in the day to start up Cottonwood Creek, so we drove 1.2 miles east of town again, back toward the Willow Lake trailhead, and camped on sandy flats. Saturday morning I set an alarm for 0500 and observed an unusually bright comet with binoculars, without leaving my sleeping bag. (No I didn't meet any bears this time...)
Saturday, Sep 2: Being in no hurry, we had a delicious hot breakfast in Crestone. Then we drove south to the Cottonwood Creek trailhead, 5.5 miles beyond the Baca Grande entrance gate on the south side of town. The road was paved for a while but got increasingly bumpy, and crossed one "unsafe bridge" (that you could 4WD around if necessary). It passed a number of spiritual retreats.
At the townsite of Cottonwood, 8420', we had a hard time finding the trail. After some exploring (wearing full packs), we discovered it started as a 4WD road just east of the large water tank up the hill, well left of the creek. For about 1/4 mile you could drive it; then it became a rather primitive, overgrown trail. It was always on the left side of the creek, but after a couple of miles it got very hard to follow.
We discovered the penalty for losing the main trail was scrambling (still with full packs) up steep Sangre de Cristo Range type of rock and doing a lot of bushwhacking. There were many cairns off the best route. It was amazingly easy to lose the "good" (though unimproved) trail each time we found it. There were some places where it dropped or wound through thick forest. Even on the way back we lost it several times, despite serious attention to following it.
We hoped to reach Cottonwood Lake, but I was tired and couldn't march fast enough. I was slow with a backpack anyway. We hiked for a little over six hours, 1155-1805, before finally calling it quits after gaining "just" 2900'. We parked for the night at a pleasant campsite on a flat under deep trees at about 11320', near a waterfall and the continuation of the trail up a very steep, rocky hillside. It was just past a nearly invisible fork in the trail -- you need a map if you visit this area! It turned out to be the last possible place to camp under trees. Straight line distance from the trailhead to that point was 3.3 miles, so I guess the trail distance was about five miles.
Sunday morning, Sep 3: I felt well rested, and we left camp with daypacks at 0700. Before long we lost the trail again at timberline on the way to a higher bowl. No problem; we climbed and traversed high on the rocky, grassy left side of the valley to just below Cottonwood Lake, 12310'. We took a break at the lake at 0810, surrounded by tundra and steep rock walls. The south sides of Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle loomed above us. Long, low morning sunbeams decorated the environs.
From the lake we found a mostly grassy route east and north to the Needle's southeast ridge. There was no reason to go as far as the lowest saddle on the ridge (the crossing point to South Colony Lakes). We found the main trail and followed it left, back on the ridge to the base of the pinnacle at 0910. There the route dropped about 50' to the left to enter the lower of two steep, bare-rock gullies. A cold wind crossed the ridge.
We proceeded up the gully with several other parties and made the treacherous crossing left, up, over, and down into the higher gully (the worst climbing on the route). I thoroughly enjoyed it even though it was quite steep and airy at points. When you are comfortable on exposed terrain, it's a great joy scrambling on solid, knobby conglomerate rock. For some reason though, we were about the only hikers with the sense to wear helmets.
We arrived on the wondrously complex summit of Crestone Needle at 1025 (3:25 for 2880' from camp). The view was of course spectacular, especially northeast straight down to South Colony Lakes. We had lovely, clear fall weather, much better than three years ago when all I saw was fog! There were about 15 people on the Needle, continuously coming and going, some starting a rappel to traverse to the Peak. There was enough room to sleep on top, if you had the gumption to carry a full pack up there!
Bruce and I departed at 1130. Despite my having been there before, we were led astray by cairns, too far left along the ridge above the northeast face. I was complacent. After descending a while and realizing our error, fortunately we spotted people on the main route. We found a way to traverse over to it before the going got any more exposed. It wasn't real risky but it wasn't fun either. Moral: Pay very close attention to your return route once you enter the lower gully. It's easy to get lost.
We downclimbed slowly. At the base of the pinnacle we followed the lower gully down a couple hundred feet more until it ended in a V-cliff looking right down on Cottonwood Lake. We backtracked and about 100' higher we crossed over a ridge. We found the next gully east to be passable, though steeper and looser than our up-route further east. It provided us a direct route down to the lake again at 1355.
Once at the lake the route to Crestone Peak, up a red rock couloir, was clearly visible. It looked easier than it was from the other side. (If camped at South Colony Lakes, you might prefer to cross the saddle, drop nearly to Cottonwood Lake, and climb the Peak from that side.) But it was late and clouding up, and we'd had our fill. We decided to skip climbing another 2000'. We mosied down to camp, following the trail this time, though it nearly vanished at several steep spots. We arrived at 1525, 3:25 from the top, 8:25 on the round trip, just before the heavens parted in a thunderous deluge.
We packed up inside our tents. Later when the rain stopped, we hiked and downclimbed for nearly two soggy hours to a nice campsite by the creek at roughly 9400'.
Monday morning, Sep 4: It only took us an hour more to finish the hike back to our vehicles. We parted in Crestone. I stopped at the Salida hot springs pool to convalesce from the week's exercise.
(Next trip report: 1989_0916-17_MissouriMtn.htm)