Back in mid June I went on my first vacation out of state in a couple years as I went out to Colorado to climb Mt. Elbert, the highest point in Colorado. This was most certainly not a solo adventure as I tagged along with a few friends of mine with more experience when it comes to these type of hikes. In recent years, they’ve visited a few different states in pursuit of the thrill and challenge of climbing mountains. I know in the past there was a time or two where my friends invite me to go on one of these hiking trips but turned them down because I was unsure if it would interfere with photography work. This year’s trip obviously worked with my schedule so I decided to join in on this adventure with my friends.
Our journey west started on Wednesday afternoon as the four of us that were traveling from the Waukegan area piled into a Toyota Highlander. Our original plan for the drive out was that we would stop at a rest stop at some point to sleep for a little while but instead we managed the 15 hour drive fairly well with each of us doing a portion of the drive. Since most of our driving was done during the night, there wasn’t all that much to see out the windows. The lone thing of note during this portion of the trip was stopping at the World’s Largest Truckstop to take a break and get a bit to eat.
By the time we were close to Denver, it was around 7am but we had to find a way to occupy our time since we had to pick up our friend who was flying in from Seattle at around 11am and also to wait for check in time at the Air BNB at 4. The first place we stopped at was a diner to grab some breakfast. I’m still kicking myself just a little for ordering biscuits and gravy instead of getting a Denver omelet. From there we wasted some time at Walmart before finding a nearby park with a trail that we walked on for a little while. Next, we headed over to the airport and had a slight hiccup in navigating things so it took a few more minutes than we thought it would.
After the airport, we headed over to Golden to wander a bit. When we first planned this trip, we had been talking about going on the tour of the Coors Brewery. However, what we didn’t realize was that you have book a tour quite a bit in advance so that put the kibosh on that idea. So instead we checked out a few shops around there and then stopped at restaurant for lunch. Then we left Golden and made a couple stops to get supplies. By around 5 we arrived at our Air BNB for the next few days, settled in, and relaxed after a long day.
On Friday we did our warm up hike so that we could get acclimated to hiking at higher altitudes. The trail we ended up hiking was the 7:30 Mine Trail, which was about a 15 minute drive from where we were staying. We chose this trail since it was a reasonable distance from our place and also seemed to have a few interesting features to it. One of the more noteworthy features of this trail, the Clifford Griffin monument, we completely bypassed on our way up without even realizing it. As a result when we reached a point on our trail where it looked like we had reached a natural stopping point, we were a little confused about if were on the right trail even.
Eventually after debating what to do, we cautiously crossed a stream to try out path that didn’t seem quite as well trodden. We didn’t get very far down that path before realizing that the monument we had been looking for was actually on the side that we had just come from and had somehow missed it. So we decided to head back at that point and figure out where we suppose to have turned. On the way back down figured out that the monument we had been looking for was a little off the trail and behind a large boulder that blocked it from view.
Of course since the hike took a little out of us, we stopped over at a restaurant down the road from us for a late lunch. Then we went back to our Air BNB to shower and relax for a little while. Later in the evening we decided it would be best to prepare for the challenges of the next day by getting a nice filling meal. To accomplish this, we went to Beau Jo’s to have some Colorado style pizza. After that we stopped at a gas station in town to make sure we were stocked up on snacks and foods for our hike. Once we got back to our place, we packed up our hiking bags so we could be ready to head out early in the morning.
We had everything we needed for our hike together in decent order so that we started making our drive to Mt. Elbert around 3:30am. We set out so early because we were a little worried about the parking situation and didn’t want to hike any further than necessary. Another reason was that we wanted to reach the summit before the afternoon since we had heard that there’s usually thunderstorms in the afternoon up there. I think we timed our arrival fairly well as we found a decent parking spot near the trailhead and were on the trail hiking by around 5:30am.
Starting the hike at 5:30am worked out pretty well for us considering that we were a little lacking when it came to headlamps and flashlights. So it was convenient that by the time we started hiking, the sun was starting to shine through and illuminate the path. At the beginning of the hike, I felt like we were all keeping a reasonable pace and doing pretty good. I’m not sure how long that lasted as after some time a couple people in our group seemed to have better endurance and hike on ahead. Meanwhile, myself and my 2 other buddies went about things with a slower pace and often took breaks.
The beginning of the hike when you’re moving in the wooded trail area, progress seemed fairly easy. The challenge of this hike really started to kick in right around the time where I was out of the woods and moved beyond the tree line. Going along the trail as I continued my ascent, the altitude took its toll and really wore me out. There were plenty of times where the thought of giving up and turning back crossed my mind, but kept on going because I wanted to conquer the mountain. There are definitely times where it looks disheartening when you see all the zigzagging you have to do to get to what you get to the top.
Then you reach what you thought what might be the top only to find out that it’s actually a false summit. On the plus side, all the members of my hiking group were finally back together since the friends that were ahead of us waited for us up there. From there we hiked over to the actual summit, took in the view from the top, and for a moment reveled in our accomplishment. After about 6 hours on the trail, there we were finally at the highest point in Colorado, Mt. Elbert.
The descent was much faster, but presented its own set of challenge as I tried my best not to slip as I navigated the rocky terrain of the mountain. For the descent, we yet again began as a group but as we progressed, there became more separation between each member of our group with myself bring up the end of the line. I was certainly relieved that everyone else in my group waited up for me at the tree line. For awhile in the woods on the way down, we managed to stick together as group. However as seemed to be often the case with this hike, we would eventually separate in to two groups. The descent ended up taking around 2 hours.
Since we had an early start to our day for the hike, there was still quite a bit of the day left by the time we finished up the hike. One of our top priorities after the hike was finding some place to grab a bite to eat that hopefully had outdoor seating since we all kind of felt a little gross and smelly at that point. Eventually on the trip back to our place, we stopped at a Wendy’s that had a few picnic tables outside. My friends were really speaking the truth about the first meal you have after a hike tasting so good. Once we got back to our place, we took it easy for the most part as we were pretty worn out for obvious reasons. Eventually the guy in our group who is a chef cooked up a quality meal with a steak burger and potatoes and green beans on the side. Definitely was a good way to end the day.
Sunday was our last day in Colorado and we didn’t have anything planned for the day. So there we were on Sunday morning scouring the internet to find something interesting to do. Eventually we decided to go to Denver to catch the Nationals take on the Rockies. We made sure to get into the stadium early so that we got some of the $3 Coors. The game itself was a bit of a disappoint but then again we were all mostly happy that it didn’t go into extra innings seeing as our seats weren’t in the shade and it was a pretty hot day. The Rockies scored their only run via a solo home run in the second only to see the closer be unable to close it out and give up 2 runs in the 9th inning. After that we wandered around Denver for a little bit and grabbed dinner.