On Walkabout On: Grays Peak, Colorado

Basic Information

• Name: Grays Peak
• Where: Silver Plume, Colorado
• Height: 14,270 ft
• Distance: 6 miles
• Difficulty: Moderate (Weather and snow can make this difficult)
• More Information: 14ers.com

Narrative

In my Colorado 14ers Standard Routes (Cmc Guidebook) (Colorado Mountain Club Guidebooks), two mountains located to the west of Denver are recommended for people looking for an easy climb of a 14 thousand foot peak.  The two mountains are Grays and Torreys Peak that are both over 14 thousand feet and are connected by a ridgeline.  I decided on a recent fall weekend to go and try this hike up the two peaks since the weather was supposed to be nice that day, but as I would find out during the hike that even on a nice day weather on Colorado’s high mountain peaks can still be very unpredictable.

I left Colorado Springs early in the morning at 3:30 AM to complete the 2.5 hour drive to the trailhead for Grays Peak.  The trailhead is accessed off of I-70 Exit 221 west of Denver.

The exit is for Bakersville where there is a steep dirt road that travels 3.5 miles to the trailhead.

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I recommend a high clearance vehicle for this road because it is pretty rough in some stretches where a low clearance car could bottom out on some of the rocks.  I would find out that during the drive back out from the trailhead later in the day that this dirt road is actually quite a pretty drive especially with all the changing leaves on the aspen trees:

I also saw later in the day when driving down the road a number of old mining buildings as well:

There was even a few cabins along the road with most looking like they only see use during the summer months.  However, this cabin near the trailhead was in great shape and still looked occupied:

What a spectacular place to live, but I can’t imagine anyone could spend the entire winter up here though, especially with such a rough road to access your home from.  For those who do not want to take their low clearance vehicle up the road, there is a paved parking lot at the bottom of the dirt road for people to park vehicles at and walk to the trailhead from.  I drive a Ford Escape and had no issues getting up the trail since my vehicle had plenty of clearance to navigate over the rocks and pot holes with.  I ended up arriving at the trailhead at 5:45 AM and was the first person at the parking lot.  The parking lot was of decent size where I estimate 30 cars could park.

Here however that this trail gets very busy on the weekends and the place fills up fast.  I was hiking up on a weekday and later that day when I returned to the parking lot it was about 70% full.  So parking on a weekday shouldn’t be a problem, but it could be on the weekends.  I was glad though that I was the first at the parking lot that day so I could park right next to the outhouse and run inside to use it.  My stomach was aching from some spicy food I ate the day before that needed to come out after driving on that bumpy dirt road.

After feeling much better after exiting the outhouse I set out on the trail at exactly 6:00 AM and it was very dark out.  At the beginning of the trailhead is a large sign board that includes a map of the trial.  Most hikers climb up Grays Peak first and then descend to the saddle to then climb up Torreys Peak next which is what I planned to do:

I crossed over a iron bridge that denotes the start of the trail and headed west towards Grays and Torreys Peaks:

After about 30 minutes the sun had risen enough to where I could make out that I was in quite a spectacular valley:

At the very end of the valley I could see the snow covered Grays Peak:

I am pretty sure that this valley was carved by a glacier during the Ice Age because it looked very similar to glacier carved valleys I saw in New Zealand that still have glaciers today just not as green.  After about an hour of hiking I had some great views of the first rays of the sun hitting Grays and Torreys Peaks:

Grays Peak which is the peak located on the left of the above photo was first climbed in 1861 by botanist Charles C. Perry.  Considering that the US bought this land from the French back in 1803 with the Louisiana Purchase, it definitely took sometime for the Colorado Rockies to be explored in climbed.  Imagine what an adventure that

It really was a spectacular sight and well worth getting up early to get pictures of:

The further up the trail I hiked the rays of the rising sun became more intense on the sides of the mountains in front of me:

Soon enough the orange and red hues of the sun turned into normal sunlight as I began to hike the switchback up to the top of these two peaks:

Soon enough the rounded summit of Grays Peak was directly in front of me and appeared to be an easy hike to the top of:

Once on the actual slopes of Grays Peak the trail became very rocky with patches of ice, but still easy to follow:

Here is a view from the slopes of Grays Peak looking northeast towards the 13,164 ft. Kelso Mountain which is another prominent peak forming one side of the valley:

Here is another view of Kelso Mountain higher up the mountain where the valley I hiked up is visible to the right of the mountain:

As I climbed higher up Grays Peak the ice and snow began to increase and most importantly the wind had greatly increased as well:

As I was hiking up Grays Peak something that really added some perspective in regards to how high I was, was this airliner passing overhead:

You cannot tell in the photograph, but from my perspective the airplane looked much closer and I could actually make out little dots on the side of the airplane where the windows were.  As I trudged up the mountain I ended up making a mistake by not taking the trail that ascends up the left side of Grays Peak due to the wind and snow that was blowing in face.  I had my head down and was pushing through the inclement weather and missed the turn.  I noticed I missed the turn when I saw the saddle between the two mountains coming into view:

It wasn’t a big deal because I figured that I could just take a left at the saddle and ascend Grays Peak that way, so I continued to hike up the trail to the saddle.  The closer I got to the saddle the more impressive the views of Torreys Peak became:

Here is the view from the saddle looking up towards the summit of Torreys Peak:

Here is the view from the saddle looking up towards the summit of Grays Peak:

Here is the view looking back once again towards Kelso Mountain from the saddle:

Here is the view looking west towards other high peaks of the Rocky Mountains which were obscured at the time by haze:

It may be hard to tell in the photographs due to the beautiful blue skies, but the wind was horrible starting at about the 12,500 foot level.  Once I reached the saddle at 13,800 feet I was getting hit by the full force of the wind that at times threatened to blow me off the mountain.  I even had a hard time taking the pictures shown above from the saddle because of how strong the wind was.

I hid behind the rock cairn on the summit as a windbreak in hopes the wind would die down.  I sat around for 20 minutes and got colder as no end to the wind was in site, if anything it got worse.  I had two pairs of gloves on and my hands were still cold.  I had a warm winter watch cap on so the top of my head was warm, but my face was freezing.  My nose was frozen shut due to the mucus freezing in my nose.  The tears from eyes turn to ice and was annoying because it scratched my eyes.  I wish I would have had a ski mask and googles, but I did not bring any.  So instead I took out a wet weather top I had in my bag and wrapped it around my head like a Afghan scarf.  This helped keep my face warm a little bit, but I was still cold and my eyes bothered me.

However, I decided to make an attempt to finish the climb up Grays Peak.  What I did was I would wait until the big gusts died down and moved up the mountain as far as I could before the dangerous gusts began again.  I ascended up to about the 14,000 foot level on Grays Peak before the wind just got so bad I had to get off the mountain.  I could hardly move because what had been strong gusts before that were threatening to throw me off the mountain was now just a constant strong wind.  I decided I had to get off this mountain because of the wind.  I could no longer stand up because of the wind and was on all fours crawling down the mountain backwards.  Here are a couple of pictures I took of some of the mountains to the west as I was crawling down the side of Grays Peak:

As soon as I got back to the trail intersection at the saddle I began heading down the mountain.  As soon as I got below the saddle the ridgeline was able to deflect the wind enough to where it wasn’t dangerous to walk anymore.  The wind up there on the ridgeline was easily the worst I have ever experienced in my life and I was happy to be out of it now.  I hurried down the trail and soon enough I could only feel a strong breeze as I stared up at the summits of Grays and Torreys Peaks:

Looking back up at them it was hard to believe to the wind and cold I had just experienced because it looked so nice out.  I ran into hikers heading up the mountain that were wearing short sleeve shirts and shorts and were looking at me in amazement because of all the winter gear I had on.  I warned them of the conditions that lied ahead and they said they would turn around as well if it got too bad for them.  I few other hikers I ran into stopped and started putting on their winter gear based on my advice.  Something else I noticed on the way down was that my iPhone that I run my GPS app on while hiking turned off.  So the GPS map shown above is a bit off because it was so cold my iPhone quit working.  I turned it back on and it worked with no issues the rest of the hike.

Anyway I continued to hike back to the parking lot and took a lot of pictures of the beautiful valley that I could not see much of when I started the hike because it was dark out:

I also noticed while walking back the mine diggings of the Stevens Gulch Mine which is still an active gold mine:

I was also able to take in the impressive peaks that form one side of the valley opposite Kelso Mountain:

Speaking of Kelso Mountain here is a picture of that mountain as well:

I could also see the creek that flows through the valley that earlier in the morning I could only hear due to the darkness:

Finally I came upon the iron bridge I crossed to start my hike earlier that morning:

Here is the view looking up the valley at the creek while standing on the bridge:

Here is the view of the creek from the bridge looking down the valley which is what the rough dirt road follows to access I-70 three and half miles away:

Conclusion

Even though I did not quite make it to the top of Grays Peak due to the extreme weather conditions I still had a great time hiking on this trail.  The beauty of this place and the ease of hiking up the trail means that I will definitely come back here next summer and climb up both peaks when there is no threat of extreme cold.  When I climb mountains I like to sit down on the summit and spend some time taking in the views and not worry about being blown off the mountain or getting frostbite which was what I was faced with on this hike.  Based on my experience I highly recommend that people bring cold weather gear to include a ski mask and goggles if hiking in these mountains in the autumn because even what can appear to be a nice day down below doesn’t mean that it will be nice at high altitudes.  It was a lesson learned for me and I have already added the gear to my standard hiking kit that I will be bringing with me this autumn.