The day after my Mt Yale summit, I embarked on what would be my final 14er hike of the year, Huron Peak. Huron is known as being one of the easier Colorado 14ers, and while 3,400 feet of climbing is far from easy, it is definitely less intense than some of the other 14ers I’ve done.
While the distance and miles are less than some, the views certainly don’t disappoint! The trailhead is located in a remote alpine valley accessible only with high clearance vehicles, and the trail largely is totally insulated from modern infrastructure. This hike definitely packs a punch in its 6 miles!
Miles/Elevation:
From Upper Trailhead:
6.6 miles
3,418 feet vertical gain
From Lower Trailhead:
10.75 miles
3,800 feet vertical gain
About the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness:
The Collegiate Peaks Wilderness is a wilderness area in Colorado split between San Isabel and Gunnison National Forests. At 168,000 acres, Collegiate Peaks has tons of trails, and lots of places to find solitude among the mountains!
Named for the set of peaks named after renowned universities (Harvard, Columbia, Oxford, etc), Collegiate Peaks is the home of many of the highest peaks in the lower 48, and Rocky Mountains, including 8 14ers and numerous 13,000 foot peaks.
A wilderness area, Collegiate Peaks does not allow any form of motorized transport, and usage is highly regulated and restricted. You will find no roads in the area’s 168,000 acres, and anything with wheels is banned in the wilderness area. No cars, no bikes, no ATVs. Wilderness areas can be found in the mountains across the United States, but the density of massive peaks here is unmatched!
About 14ers:
A 14er is a slang term used by hikers and mountaineers in the United States when referring to mountains over 14,000 feet in height. These 14,000 foot peaks are the highest category of mountain in the lower 48, as there are no 15,000+ foot peaks in the lower 48 states.
There are a total of 66 14ers in the lower 48 states, with the vast majority of them being found in Colorado. Colorado has 53 14ers, California has 12, and Washington has 1. It speaks to the loftiness of these peaks that famous mountain states like Utah, Wyoming, and Montana are all devoid of 14ers, despite all having massive chains of mountains running through them.
While Colorado has by far the most 14ers of any lower 48 state, the highest peak in the lower 48 is actually Mt Whitney, located in Southern California. As you can probably guess, the rest of the top 10 is dominated by Colorado summits, but another noteworthy peak outside of Colorado is Mt Rainier, the massive snow capped volcano outside Seattle!
Getting To The Trailhead:
From highway 24 south of Leadville and north of Buena Vista, find forest road 390 just south of the town of Granite. Turn onto 390 to head west, into the mountains. 390 from the beginning is gravel, but for most of its distance is passable to low clearance cars.
Continue on 390 deeper into the valley for around 12 miles. At just under 12 miles, you will reach the Winfield Mining Camp Interpretive Site. Here the road forks: 390 goes left, and 390a goes right. Head left here to continue on 390.
At this point, you are near the end of the “road,” and while low clearance cars could still make it this far, it would be pretty rough for the final couple miles. Just after the Winfield Mine Camp, the road ends (according to Google Maps at least). To make it to the trailhead, you will need a high clearance vehicle, and a bit of bravery to make it down the 4 wheel drive road!
On Google Maps, the road literally ends. It actually shows this route as a hiking trail! However, if you have a good SUV or truck, you should be able to make it. You probably wouldn’t want to try this with something like a Subaru or Rav4, but there were lots of stock Jeeps, 4Runners, and Tacomas!
From Winfield Mine Camp, the trailhead is about 2 miles. Many actually hike the 4 wheel drive road and park before the going gets too rough, but if you want to drive all the way there, expect it to take a bit of time. There are major rocks to navigate, creeks to cross, and steep hills to climb!
Once you near the trailhead, it’s pretty easy to spot. The road basically ends, and there will likely be a number of vehicles in the lot. From here, begin your ascent of Huron Peak!
Huron Peak Trail:
To Treeline:
After spending the night in the passenger seat of my friends Jeep, we rose at dawn and drove the final few hundred yards from where we had spent the night to the trailhead itself (shoutout to her because I couldn’t have climbed Huron without her!). After a bit of stretching and a snack, we set off onto the trail!
Always be sure to follow the 7 Leave No Trace Principles when in the outdoors!
The lower portion of the Huron Peak Trail is nicely made, but pretty unremarkable. After an easy first half mile heading a bit further up the valley, the trail begins ascending the valley wall through a long series of switchbacks. These switchbacks range from short and super tight, to long and meandering.
As you climb, you do get some occasional views overlooking the valley below. This is a beautiful area, and the views are totally unspoiled by modern infrastructure. You might catch a glimpse of a gravel road or a lone SUV, but that’s about it. However, the early part of the trail is in the trees, so don’t expect too much for views.
After about 1.7 miles and 1,500 feet of climbing, you’ll begin to emerge above treeline. Once out of the trees, you’ll get your first really clear glimpse of Huron, and the trail ahead!
The Lower Slopes:
Once out of the trees, the first step is to cross the bowl below the peak. The trail here is flat as it enters the alpine tundra, but you’ll be able to see the route and climb ahead ahead. Huron Peak here is on your right, but you’ll likely be able to see the small shapes of hikers on the ridge ahead, or at least their headlamps!
You’ll find bears in the Rockies so always be bear safe!
Once across the bowl, you’ll have another huge set of switchbacks to deal with. This set of switchbacks ascends all the way up to the final summit ridge, so you’ll be doing about 1,500 feet of climbing here!
The trail out of the bowl starts with a nasty set of stairs, which actually make the steep ascent pretty manageable. But I mean, stairs are still super annoying. Once you’re done with the stairs, the switchbacks start!
Always follow basic trail etiquette when on trail!
There isn’t all that much to say about the switchbacks. The trail is really nice for a 14er, and honestly pretty nice overall. The views are continually awesome, and get better as you go up. The incline is steep, but not overwhelming. Honestly, the climb is tough, but it’s really not that bad. Just gotta push through the challenges of elevation!
Once at the top of the switchbacks, you’ll be ready to tackle the final push to the summit. At the base of the summit ridge, you’ll have a new awesome view looking to the other side of the mountain. When I did this climb, there was still a small snow field on the far slope, and a lone mountain goat was crossing it, so that was cool!
The Final Push:
From the base of the summit ridge, it really doesn’t look all that bad. You have about 500 feet left of climbing, and from the bottom, it looks like a fairly gentle slope up towards the summit. And while it would be a pretty easy scramble, the trail is a mess somewhere between hiking trail and a loose slippery scramble.
Going up, it’s not so bad. At least your leaning into the slope, and any slip just means your foot slides out and you catch yourself with your hands, but it’s a little bit different going down!
The route up to the summit is very obvious, and this is a fairly popular 14er, so you’ll likely be able to follow other hikers if you aren’t sure where to go. A surefire way to find the summit is just to keep going up until there’s nowhere else to climb! Kind of a good way to find summits!
Anyway, after a nasty 400 foot climb or so, you will reach the ridge itself. Here, the footing becomes much more solid, and it’s a short boulder hopping adventure over to the summit itself.
Once at the summit, the views fully open up, and are some of the best I’ve seen in all of Colorado. I really enjoyed Huron overall, and the views especially, because it has a real feeling of remoteness.
The trailhead requires off roading to reach, the valley the hike starts in is a dozen miles from a paved road, and the views reflect this remoteness. All around you are massive, jagged ridges of stone and ice. This honestly is one of the few places I’ve been where there have been 360 degree views of nothing but mountains!
However, the news was not all good at the summit. As we had been suspecting, and had verified on the way up, a thick blanket of smoke was settling in all across the Rockies of Colorado. Fires were raging across the west from Colorado to Canada, and the skies confirmed this to be true.
Thankfully, we were nowhere close to any flames ourselves, but the views and our lungs were paying the price! In fact, every hike I would do for the rest of the summer of 2021 would be in the haze of these fires.
Descending:
From the summit, the descent is straightforward enough, just follow the trail you’ve already taking back down to the trailhead. There really aren’t even any intersections to deal with. And considering the quality of the trail itself, this would prove to be an easy descent, except for the first 500 feet.
We already knew the descent down from the summit ridge was going to be nasty, and it proved to be every bit as sucky as we thought. It’s too steep and too slippery to be walked down, but there aren’t any boulders large enough to scramble down either. The result of this combination is that you either are born a mountain goat and have no trouble, or you pick your way down, sliding down half of it!
After a few minor falls between the two of us, we did make it down to the actual trail soon enough, but it was a nasty start to the descent!
The next hour plus of hiking would pass uneventfully. First the switchbacks down to the bowl below Huron, then across the bowl to the trees, then into the trees and down the switchbacks to the trailhead. However, somewhere a mile or so from the trailhead, we encountered a woman hiking with her dog.
The dog was clearly struggling and wasn’t really able to walk under its own power. The lady told us she was trying to get it back to the trailhead, but it wasn’t able to make it. Had it been a smaller dog, I would have offered to carry it down myself, but even between the three of us I don’t think we would have been able to. It easily weighed 100 pounds, probably closer to 150, and after summiting a 14er, there was no way I could carry that much myself on my back.
All we could do was offer to call search and rescue once we were out, and convey a message for help to her friends. They had already descended and were going to head back up to meet here, but we let them know they would need something to carry the dog out as a makeshift stretcher. We found them at the trailhead, and after a short conversation, they set out back up the trail, makeshift stretcher in hand.
We were obviously super worried about the dog, but they had a group of 4 or 5, so we would have just gotten in the way had we stayed. So, we decided to drive out and call for help once we got service. After a few calls of no answer, we finally got ahold of someone, who actually informed us that they were already on the case because it had already been reported! I don’t know what happened to the two, but I hope everything worked out ok!
Despite the worrying end to the day, this was a really good 14er. While it was the easiest 14er I did during summer ‘21, I actually think it had the best views, and the remoteness definitely added a cool feel!
Topdown Lifestyle Rating: 9/10
This is a really nice 14er hike that is definitely on the easy side of 14er summits. The views are excellent, the trail is excellent, and it’s not that hard of a hike, relatively speaking.
However, there are a couple of things to note. First of all, the biggest challenge with this hike is the difficulty in accessing the trailhead. Without a legitimate SUV with high clearance, you are not going to reach the trailhead, and if you can’t access the upper trailhead, then this is no longer a short 14er hike.
I also really did not enjoy the final push to the summit. While it’s not necessarily even an actual scramble, the final summit push is crazy steep on a wildly steep, loose, and slippery trail. I slipped and fell once, and my hiking partner slipped multiple times. It’s not a deal breaker, but it’s not ideal.
Overall, this is a really good 14er hike that would make a perfect first 14er, or training peak. While it is really good, I do think this hike would fade over time as just another 14er. It’s nice, but it’s not special. Overall though, if you can access the trailhead, this is a really good climb!
Pros:
- Relatively easy 14er trail
- Fantastic views
- Nicely built trail
Cons:
- Very difficult to access trailhead
- Loose and slippery final push to summit
Alternative Hikes:
Missouri Mountain – Northwest Ridge
When To Climb Huron Peak:
Most Colorado 14ers can be climbed year round if you are able to deal with winter conditions and the challenges that come with them. However, if you want to avoid snowy and icy conditions, you will have to wait for the mountains to melt out, and since you’ll be climbing above 14,000 feet, that can take awhile.
Most years, most 14ers should be accessible on summer routes and have summer conditions by early July. Dry years may see the mountains snow free sometime in June, and exceptionally snowy years can leave lingering snow well into July and August. You will need to carefully research conditions on the mountain before you start your hike yourself.
All of that being said, peak climbing season is generally July and August. Conditions can be good in September as well, but cold weather and early snow may throw a wrench into your plans. All that being said, I would recommend late July and August for a 14er summit!
Links For Further Reading:
Huron Peak : Climbing, Hiking & Mountaineering : SummitPost
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