Hiking Trails of Southwestern Colorado, Fifth Edition. John Peel

       HIKES OUT OF SILVERTON

       Hope Lake

       Ice Lakes

       US Grant Peak

       Columbine Lake

       Kendall Mountain

       Whitehead Peak

       Silver Lake

       Hematite Basin

       Highland Mary Lakes

       Continental Divide

       VALLECITO AREA HIKES

       Lake Eileen

       Vallecito Creek

       Cave Basin

       Pine River

       THE AREA FOURTEENERS

       Mount Sneffels

       Handies Peak

       Redcloud & Sunshine Peaks

       Uncompahgre Peak

       Wetterhorn Peak

       Ethics

       Resources

       Index

       Can you find this spectacular waterfall, located near one of the hikes in this book?

      PREFACE TO THE FIFTH EDITION

      Welcome to what is a surprisingly hefty rewrite of this classic trail guidebook. It’s been more than a decade since the fourth edition of this guide was published, and a lot has changed: Trailheads have moved; trails were built, modified, and made permanent by increased wear; roads deteriorated or were blocked off; private and public land-use restrictions were tweaked; avalanche debris forced detours; and fires altered the landscape. And that’s just a start.

      This edition adds a bundle of trails (including a new Vallecito section) and leaves out a few that aren’t all that conducive to hikers anymore. Also, several hikes and sections are reorganized, plus new photos and maps have been added that we believe are much easier to use.

      This update has certainly been a labor of love. Everything in here was painstakingly researched. Yep, it’s a tough job wandering around in the wilderness, but someone has to do it.

      The first person to create this marvelous compendium was Fort Lewis College philosophy professor Paul Pixler, whose first version came out in 1980. Paul wrote two more editions before deciding to find a successor. Through a mutual friend, Scott Graham, Paul invited me to carry on his work, and I wrote the fourth edition of this book, printed in 2006. Paul died in 2011 at the age of ninety, but a lot of his words remain in this book. This fifth edition started with me scribbling of notes in the margins of the fourth edition, but the bulk of the research was done in the summer of 2019.

      There are always people who lend a hand in the creation of a guidebook such as this. Here are a few:

      My father, Donald Peel, finished climbing all the state’s fourteeners back in 1951, and was something like the thirty-seventh person that the Colorado Mountain Club recognized for doing so. He, and to some extent my mother, introduced me and my sister, Amy, to hiking. All those Life Savers candies he used to goad me from trail stop to trail stop in those early years paid off in the end.

      Eventually, I started exploring the mountains with high school buddies Steve Chapman and Jim Wadge. We all survived our scrapes (usually it was me doing something like desperately clinging to a rope while stuck horizontally on a bridge, or needing dire help from above when stuck on a cliff), and we remain friends today.

      More recently, my wife, Judy, and dog, Buda, have shared my adventures. Thanks, Judy, for your constant help, guidance, and editing on this time-consuming project. Friends David Buck and Peter Schertz joined me on several trails and challenging mountains. Leo Lloyd, search and rescue expert, helped to craft some of the gear essentials, safety tips, and first-aid information. One of Leo’s first of countless wilderness rescues, incidentally, was catching Paul Pixler when Paul slipped on El Diente; that incident remains in the ensuing Introduction.

      Thanks also to the great team at West Margin Press: editor Olivia Ngai, designer Rachel Metzger, and marketing manager Angie Zbornik. Also, thanks to Jed Botsford with the Forest Service and Joe Lewandowski with Parks and Wildlife for lending their expertise; and to Mary Monroe Brown of Durango Trails 2000 for her consultation.

      So pick a trail and refresh your wilderness IQ with the information in the Introduction and Ethics chapter. Use this book as it suits you, and go try to have as much fun as I did.

      John Peel

      Durango, Colorado

      The shale-rock ridge leading to the Engineer summit. (Photo by Steve Chapman)

      The top of Pioneer Trail reaches Nusbaum Road, the junction shown here.

INTRODUCTION

      It’s pretty basic, really: Stuff a few things in a small pack, arrive at a trailhead, don your chosen footwear, and start walking. The goal of this book is merely to add quality to that outdoor experience. It’s to help match your mood and energy with the appropriate trail. It’s to keep you on the right track.

      This chapter will explain how the book is structured and the best ways to use it, with an explanation of the headings before each hike description. The next chapters have general information on coexisting with other trail users, facing potential hazards, proper gear and first-aid equipment, and preparation tips.

      Many trails await. This book isn’t designed to tell you exactly where to go, but it makes a good launching pad.

      WHAT’S INCLUDED

      The goal in creating this guide was to find the most enjoyable day-use trails in the Durango-Silverton corridor. It branches out a bit to include hikes out of Mancos and Vallecito as well. Most of these hikes are within an hour’s drive of Durango or Silverton. Backpacking routes are not featured here, although you’ll find several great ideas for backpacking trips, and some multiday routes are specifically pointed out within the day hike descriptions. Technical climbs are not featured, but a couple of the mountains in here will test your ability to rock-scramble.

      Almost all of these hikes are on public land. Several cross private land, however, and that’s noted. A few trails on public land are subject to seasonal closures and that’s noted too; these are all near Durango.

      The fourteeners of southwestern Colorado posed a bit of a dilemma for me. These overclimbed peaks get their own chapter, but not all twelve made the cut. Handies Peak via Grouse Gulch or American Basin is a 1-day route from as far as Durango with a reasonably early start. Mount Sneffels can be done in a day from Durango too, but it’s a good idea to get a really early start. Wetterhorn, Uncompahgre, Redcloud, and