Great hike! The summit was beautiful. Overall not as hard as some of the others in the area, but like most it gets really steep for the last 500 vertical feet.
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Trail #836 is gentle grade to the junction of the Daisy Pass Trail. Plan on walking the first .8 of a mile up an old jeep road to the beginning of the Raggeds Wilderness. You come across plenty of water for filtering and currently the water crossings are passable without getting your boots wet. Most people hiking Trail #836 are headed to Blue Lake which a mile beyond the intersection.....
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Tourists, do not underestimate the steady elevation gain of this hike. Be sure to start down by noon in August. Solo navigation of bouldering to summit takes patient scouting during summit fever rush to spot the next cairn. Do not proceed until you spot the next cairn, but half way up the boulder climb the tiny cairns move to the east face which can only be seen by following the brief (30 ft) dirt trail from the last cairn on the west face. Do not climb unless you are heading for a cairn. As Bunny states, do not start out on the east face.
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Excellent trail most of the way. However, finding the route on the ridge can be challenging as it is difficult to follow the trails in the rocks. Follow the cairns on the West side. Do not cross to the east side even though some misleading tracks lead in this direction. The distance and time associated this hike are grossly inaccurate. Distance is 15 km and 6 to 8 hours is more reasonable estimate of the time needed. Elevation gain is 1288 m.
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Excellent trail most of the way. However finding the route on the ridge can be confusing as the trail vanishes in boulders. Follow the cairns on the west side of the ridge. Do not cross to the east side even though some tracks lead in this direction.
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Awesome off road trail. Not easy but not too tough either. Only a few skid plate contacts and nobody got stuck. (Tacoma with 3” lift and 285’s)
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Really a great new spur to the evergrowing network of trails in and around Mt. Crested Butte ski area. Appropriately called "Happy Hour" because it is a shortcut to the Upper Loops and the bars in Crested Butte or just as appropriately because your short hike will result in a 'happy' hour of your time. An Aspen covered forest gives way to plentiful wildflowers: Mountain Gentian, Larkspur, Goldenrod, Astors, Sulfer buckwheat, geraniums, Lupine, Alpine Sunflower, Senecio and many more. Happy Hour intersects Westside where one can turn around or where you could turn left or northwest and drop back to Crested Butte Mountain Resort. This is a buffed out, well built trail.
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Key to this hike is finding informal stock trail that cuts around flanks of Matterhorn to saddle, during descent of Wetterhorn. This saves time and elevation. Where Wetterhorn trail leaves boulder field around 12,400 ft look to the left at the stream between Wetterhorn and Matterhorn. The stock trail starts from the last point before the stream starts to descend into the steep-sided gully.
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First 14’er for me and wow what a great hike. Great views all the way up. We took a 4x4 up to the upper trailhead which was also a fun little ride in the Jeep (definitely need a 4x4). It’s definitely a little strenuous though and coming from TX I was feeling the altitude a bit afterwards.
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A terrific hike through aspen groves. Lots of other hikers and mountain bikers. Beautiful viewpoints of Mt. Created Butte. The wildflowers were out in abundance!
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Mad snow cover was pretty awesome.. views from all over the hike were absolutely gorgeous! Glissading on the way down was an added benefit
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Started at 6:45 am at the 4wd trailhead and followed a beautiful recently repaired/constructed trail through aspen forest to the music of chirping birds. Crossed one short (100 ft) snow field at 12,000 ft just below tree line and a much longer one (1000 ft) from 13,600 to 13,800 ft.Took 4 hours to climb, arrived to meet 100 others who were equally joyful to have reached the summit.
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Good 1.5 workout from Crested Butte South. Would not recommend as a destination ride.
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July 1 2019 - tons of snow up there still. Gorgeous views of Arastra Gulch, Silver Lake Basin, Kendall Mountain, etc. Stopped at the first stream crossing due to thin snow bridge across it. Several downed trees covering the trail on the north side that we had to navigate.
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I’m a low lander, but in better shape than most and the first leg of the hike up from Creede is a challenge. I stopped several time to let my HR catch up. The trail is steep wear stable shoes. The views are great, only saw one person.
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I started out at 950 am and hiked the Ouray end of the Dallas trail out and back. Very good for the most part. The was one tree I needed to crawl under and several more to climb over. Most of the streams were easy crossings. Moonshine Park was fabulous with great views of the Cimarrons. I wanted to get better pictures of the Sneffels range so extended the hike about 1/3 mile up a hill into a small park. Takes almost as long to come down 3000 ft as going up because of steep switchbacks near the beginning. Finished at 345. My wife and pup picked me up at the trailhead and we went into Ridgway, True Grit Cafe, for a well-earned Salmon, cranberry, almond, and blue cheese salad and a lot of tea. Highly recommended!
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Started at the Trailhead around 4:30. Rain turned to snow around 11,800. Upper ridge had gusts up to 30 mph. All this and I still got it. What a rewarding challenge.
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This is a great trail inconvenient to Ouray until the snow melts up high
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This is a relatively short but strenuous hike, but worth every mile! Hiking in late October will have a lot fewer hikers, but expect cooler temperatures and patches of snow and ice. The majority of the trail was clear, but the last switchbacks up to the lake were snow covered and I broke trail through about a foot of snow. Some sort of ice grippers on your hiking shoes are required as well as hiking poles for that stretch. I had Stabilicers and poles. I took a leisurely pace up and took photos, so it was about 2 hours up to the lake. I got chased back down by a small snow squall, so that took about an hour and 40 minutes down.
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My wife and I hiked Mt. Elbert on July 10th, 2018. Not being from the area, we got an early start at 5:20 AM after camping just down the road. The trail was clear and even in the dawn light headlamps were not needed. After breaking through the treeline, we started to slow as the altitude got to us. The trail is not as well marked in two locations where scrambling is necessary, so it was helpful to have the GPS. Once on the ridge, the trail levels out a little for the final approach to the summit. Overall, it was a great experience, and one of the best hikes I have ever completed.
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