Colorado Fall 2020: Day 2 (Trinidad to Crested Butte)

I am finally getting around to continuing where my series about the Colorado roadtrip left off. It's been a busy and hectic couple of months, but I finally have the time to write another entry.

We left off at Trinidad Lake State Park. After getting a couple of items at the Wal-Mart in Trinidad, we headed north on Interstate 25 to Walsenburg. We got off the interstate at Walsenburg, refueled, and headed north on State Highway 69. This was a beautiful drive! Get ready for some slow speed limits as it was a narrow and winding road, but had beautiful views of the Wet Mountains to the east and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the west. The road reaches a summit at 8,579 ft when it crosses Promontory Divide on the border of Custer and Huerfano Counties. We then drove through Westcliffe which was a very quaint and picturesque community. I would have perhaps liked more time to stroll around the town (which I am told is a good base of operations for hiking in the Sangre de Cristo Range), but we just made a quick stop at Bluff and Summit Park on the northwest side of town to admire the view, then we continued north.

Hope Lutheran Church in Westcliffe.

View from Bluff and Summit Park in Westcliffe, looking west.

The road got more narrow with some steep ascents and descents as it went north of Westcliffe and approached U.S. Highway 50. This marked the first time on the trip that I had to begin down-shifting manually to lower gears to preserve my brake pads. I had practiced this maneuver a few times in Fort Worth when descending a steep overpass (just to get the hang of the feel), but this was my first time doing it "for real", with much more of this mountain driving yet to come!

Once we got to U.S. Highway 50, we went west along the Arkansas River, passing through Cotopaxi, Salida, and Poncha Springs. At Poncha Springs, we turned north on U.S. Highway 285 (briefly overlapping with my roadtrip from Summer 2019). This part of Colorado is quite beautiful. You are traveling along the Arkansas River (its headwaters are in Lake County near Leadville) with views of several prominent 14ers including Mount Shavano (14,231 ft), Mount Antero (14,276 ft, and the highest peak in the Sawatch Range), and Mount Princeton (14,204 ft). Other 14ers including Mount Yale, Mount Harvard, Mount Belford, Mount Elbert (the highest point in Colorado, the Rocky Mountains, and the second highest point in the Continental U.S.), and Mount Massive are to the north, but still in this same general vicinity. I'm told some of these are doable Class 1-2 hikes, perhaps if I'm in a little better shape some day. A future trip when I get ready to tackle some 14ers could including staying in Poncha Springs or Buena Vista as a base, then doing hikes in the area.

We stopped for lunch at a turnout along the Arkansas River.

Mount Princeton viewed from U.S. Highway 285 in Summer 2019.

We turned off of U.S. Highway 285 in Buena Vista onto Chaffee County Road 306, beginning the ascent up Cottonwood Pass. During Summer 2019, Independence Pass (near Aspen) was the highest paved mountain pass in Colorado, topping out at 12,095 ft. In September of 2019, Cottonwood Pass was paved, making it the new highest paved mountain pass at 12,119 ft, so of course we had to drive it! Overall, the drive up and back down Cottonwood Pass was not particularly challenging, even for someone who had very minimal mountain driving experience. There were a couple of steep sections and some switchbacks, but as a passenger in the car for Independence Pass, I felt that Independence was probably a more difficult drive as it has some exceptionally tight hairpin turns. You can be the judge however -- my dashcam video from Cottonwood Pass is embedded below.

We made a few stops along the Cottonwood Pass drive. The first was at the Denny Creek trailhead. We did not hike particularly far up this trail, but did walk through a few nice aspen stands. This is actually the trail that will eventually take you up to the summit of Mount Yale, if you're up for the 4,300 ft gain and 9.5 mi roundtrip. It is however only a Class 2 summit, so something that might be doable if I were in better shape, and had more time, neither of which existed on this day.

Amazingly, this photo was taken with a Google Pixel 3a! It came out very well printed from Shutterfly (I still need to get it framed), and no Shutterfly didn't pay me to say that. Tip: if ordering from Shutterfly, check RetailMeNot for coupons! I got 40% using a discount code from them.

Aspens along Denny Creek

Looking west on County Road 306 towards the summit of Cottonwood Pass

The next stop along Highway 330 was at the Ptarmigan Lake trailhead (the "P" is silent). This trail eventually goes to a couple of mountain lakes, but unfortunately our time was limited, and this was the one night we did not have a reserved campground, so we were not able to do the entire trail, but the parts we did were very spectacular. The foliage was more pine trees than aspens, but one of my favorite sounds in the world is the wind whistling through pine needles, and there was plenty of that going on this day. Unfortunately I did not think to take any videos of it.

Looking east towards County Road 306 from the Ptarmigan Lake trail. You gain elevation fairly quickly after leaving the trailhead. As this was my first full day in Colorado, and at a lofty elevation of around 10,800 ft, it was slow going.

Eventually, we made it to the summit of Cottonwood Pass, but the road summit is not the true summit. To get to the true summit, there's a short (about 1/2 mile) hike from the parking area. Be warned about a couple of things: (1) your altitude is rather high (over 12,000 ft), and (2) it can be very windy. I had brought along a pulse oximeter (the kind that goes on your finger) that I had purchased during the summer COVID-19 surge in Texas. I checked my blood oxygen saturation out of curiosity while at the summit and it was 90%! If I were sitting in my living room in Fort Worth, they would have rushed me to the emergency room! As for the wind, I made a rookie error by not taking my windproof shell with me on this short hike. It would have been very handy. But nevertheless, the views were spectacular. Definitely do this short hike if ever going over Cottonwood Pass.

There is not very much air up here.

We were officially west of the Continental Divide!

View to the west from the Cottonwood Pass Summit trail.

Justin photographing the landscape.

Looking back towards the east. Just look at those hairpin turns.

A small patchy of snow near the Cottonwood Pass summit.

After the summit of Cottonwood Pass, we descended down to Taylor Park Reservoir and continued west on Gunnison County Road 742. Taylor Park Reservoir seemed like a beautiful, but cold lake, with its blue waters being whipped up by the gusty and cold wind. We did not have a campground reservation this night, as campgrounds in this vicinity were all "first come, first served" after September 15th. We held out hope that we would find a campsite, but such hope was not needed. We arrived at the Lottis Creek Campground where there were only a few other campers, trying to squeeze in a hike or two at the end of the season. We did not have any firewood, but the friendly hosts gave us some of theirs remarking, "Take whatever firewood you want. We're closing for the season on Tuesday." (Which was in two days). The campground was great. During Summer 2019, most of the campgrounds were busy with kids running around and such, which is perfectly fine (kids could be doing much worse things these days). But with only two days left in the season, it was just a few crazy individuals trying to finish out the last of the hiking season before a cold and hard winter set in across the Rocky Mountains. It was very cold that night.

Taylor Park Reservoir viewed from County Road 742.

Cliffs viewed from our campsite at Lottis Creek Campground.

Tomorrow (or when I find time to write again), we go from Crested Butte to Ridgway via Kebler Pass. Photos from Kebler Pass at peak fall foliage, and my comments on the merits of packing a lunch for a day hike and my thoughts on hypoglycemia. In case you missed it, here's Days 0-1.