Mountains Speak: Blanca Peak 7/18-7/19

Last year when we took our vaction to Colorado we spent most of our time in the southern part of the state. This is the part of Colorado that we fell in love with. Though the Denver/Front Range area is lovely, fun and filled with great people it does not compare to where we spent last summer and this past weekend. One of the major draws to Colorado was the people we met last year- always stopping to chat on the trail, never failing to hold a door and always interested in the stories of a stranger. The blaring horns of impatient East Coasters are nowhere to be found. We haven't been blown over by the niceness of people in Denver, but heading back down south we were happy to see it alive and well.

It took us about 4 hours to get from Denver to the base of Blanca Peak, just north of Alamosa and just south of the Great Sand Dunes. Though we camped on the Dunes last summer and got to see the Sangre de Cristo chain, this was the first time we actually hiked in that part of the Rockies. Blanca Peak is one of the southernmost mountains in the state. It is the fourth highest in Colorado at 14,345ft and is the highest in all of the Sangres.

The trailhead for Blanca Peak is at the bottom of a huge four wheel drive road- considered by many to be the hardest road in Colorado to drive. We had been overly ambitious, imagaining that we would hike this portion of the trail (since our car was not made for this type of terrain) but after a very brief start we were approached by a friendly man in a Wrangler. He told us that once, twenty years ago, he thought it would be a good idea to hike the road and that it was one of the worst experience he had ever had outside. He invited us in the jeep and proceeded to take us up to nearly-the-end of the four wheel drive road (round trip this took him about 2.5-3 hours all out of his way just to help us. This is what we mean when we talk about the nice Coloradans). He dropped us off about a mile from lake Como, which is where all of the drivers park their cars and car camp. The entire lake was surrounded by cars and tents (boo!) so we hiked about another mile past that lake and set up camp in a remote spot. Driving in the Jeep was actually pretty fun- the car had to tackle big boulders and obstacles along the road and it was pretty scary being so close to the edge of the mountain.

The next morning we woke up before sunrise to start the summit. We covered about 2,400 feet in less than 1.5 miles. Most of the final summit approach is talus and scree- all loose rock requiring tricky footwork. The hardest part was making sure we were on the trail- since it was marked with rock carins! Not that easy to find a pile of rocks IN a pile of rocks. We were the very first people on the summit Sunday morning and are thrilled to start our fourth year with our fourth 14er :)