The veiw sighting down the canyon towards the Grand Mesa from near where we parked
The veiw sighting down the canyon towards the Grand Mesa from near where we parked
A pretty collared lizard posed on a cairn and let me get pretty close for a picture.
The view from below the andstone cliffs with the Grand Mesa in the background. We hiked down to the creek at the bototm of the dark precambrian rock in the lower right of this picture.
The view back down as we were climbing out, with Nancy in the foreground.
Climbing out of the trees, looking North.
Sadie loves the snow fields. She'd rub her face in them, and then flip over and slide on her back. I think she might miss Ithaca. Check out how dirty the snow is -- there were a lot of dust storms this spring, so the mountains are coated with a fine layer of Utah. It's made the snow melt a lot faster than it normally does (the dark absorbs heat unlike the snow which reflects it).
Some nice reflection on the first lake. The wind picked up right after this.
Another lake
It's interesting how much this looks like the Scottish Highlands, which is where I assume it got its name.
Nancy as we climbed above the Highland Mary Lakes, over to the Verde Lakes.
The view back down to the Highland Mary Lakes.
One of the Verde Lakes with the Grenadiers in the background. They're pretty remote, but they're solid hunks of Quartzite and offer great technical climbing, I've heard.
Nancy and Sadie above the Verde Lakes.
Wildflowers with the Grenadiers in the background.
Nancy and Sadie along the ridge south of the Verde Lakes.
A view back from near the Continental Divide towards some of the other Grenadiers. The peak on the left is Vestal Peak, and in the center is Arrow Peak, followed by Graystone and Electric Peaks.
A view north from the Continental Divide Trail. That's Canby Mountain in the center.
Nancy and Sadie as we descended back down to the car, which was parked at the bottom of that valley. The basin directly across the way is called Royal Tiger Basin, which seems a delightfully misplaced name given that we have neither royalty nor tigers in the US.
We had a nice campsite almost at tree line. There were clouds rolling through the valley below us, and it rained a bunch that evening, but it was completely clear by midnight.
Another view of the clouds in the valley.
We drove up as far as we could the next morning and ate breakfast as dawn broke.
The route to Castle Peak has several permanent snow fields. Having realized this before we left, we grabbed Carl's crampons and bought me an ice axe. Without crampons, I couldn't walk up the icy snow fields in the morning, so I had to walk around and cross them where they were flatter, using the axe for stability, and climbing along the scree fields to the side. I went up the right side here and crossed to the middle scree field, and then climbed up the left and cross over to the upper middle scree field while Nancy and Carl went straight up the center.
Climbing the sides gave me some nice views of Nancy and Carl going up the snow/ice fields. (As mentioned in the Highland Mary section, the snow is dirty from the dust storms that brought a fine layer of Utah this spring).
Here's a zoomed out version of the previous scene, so you can see just how big the ice fields they're climbing are.
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The peak ahead is Castle Peak, our target. We've climbed the snow fields and are now headed up the ridge on the left. The standard route goes up the snow field on the right here to the ridge on the horizon, but the snow had melted too far away from the top to make that reasonable.
Nancy and Carl climbing up to the ridge.
The view over the ridge was quite nice. The valley socked in with clouds a little to the left of center is Taylor Park. I have yet to see it when it isn't covered in low clouds.
The view back the way we came. You can see the trail on the scree slope. It heads down to the snow in the shadow. We came from around that corner.
Nancy on the ridge.
This is the view towards the other ridge. Castle peak is just off the left of the photo. The right edge of the photo is Conundrum Peak, which is also above 14,000, but the saddle between the two isn't low enough to make Conundrum an ``official'' 14er. If you look closely at the snow field, you can just make out the standard route which has some tracks leading up to the corner where the slopes of Conundrum turn into fairly level ridge. We decided that route was too steep given that I didn't have crampons, and the dirt between the snow and the ridge looked too slippery, too.
A view of Conundrum from the northeast ridge of Castle. The small lake at the bottom of the snowfield isn't there in satellite pictures -- I think maybe once the ice melts below it, it just flows through the scree.
We reached the summit at 9:25, and there were no clouds anywhere.
The view from the summit back the way we came.
The view south from the peak. The area coverd in fog is around Gunnison, CO.
Another climber took our picture with the Maroon Bells, Snowmass, and Capiotol Peak in the background.
Nancy and Carl enjoying the view with the Maroon Bells and Snowmass Mountain on the right.
Me looking into the wind to straighten out my hair for a picture.
Me on Castle Peak.
The view from Castle Peak over Conundrum. The clouds are just starting to form.
A view to the north. You can see our trail going down the scree slope just to the right of center.
The Maroon Bells, Snowmass Mountain, CApitol Peak, and Pyramid Peak.
The view to the southwest.
Nancy on the summit.
Nancy and Carl descending the ridge. Carl brought collapseable hiking poles for us, which were really helpful descending the loose slopes.
Once we got back down to the snow fields, we decided to do a glissade -- we sat down and sledded on our butts. I used my ice axe as a brake, and Nancy and Carl used the hiking poles.
Carl sliding down. There was a well-worn groove because so many other people had done the same thing this year. It curved around and felt a lot like a waterslide.
Nancy and Carl glissading below me.
The view back up the snow slopes we'd just slid down. That was the best way to end a hike I've ever experienced.
The view from the trailhead back down to wear we parked: the road got a little narrow for the 4Runner to be totally comfortable, so we walked the last 1/2 mile of road. You can see it as a little silver speck on the road a ways down.
The view from where we parked. The low peak on the left is Ruby Peak, and Mount Owen is on the right. We went up this old mining road which quickly became single track and took us up to the low point between the two peaks. Then we climbed the ridge up to Mount Owen, which is just barely a 13er at 13,058 feet.
Another view from where we parked, with Mount Owen on the left. After summitting Mount Owen, we walked down the ridge and back up to Purple Peak, the peak on the right here.
Nancy and Sadie on the ridge up to Mount Owen.
The view from the ridge to the Ragged Range. Our hike in Raspberry Creek was just to the right of those mountains, where the cloud shadow is in this picture (well, the far side of and up to that ridge).
The view from the top over Oh-Be-Joyful towards Castle Peak (see above), which is the highest peak on the horizon in the center.
The USGS marker at the top has the elevation scratch in with a knife or something similar.
Nancy and Sadie near the summit of Mount Owen, with the Maroon Bells on the horizon directly above Nancy.
The view from the summit, down the ridge to Purple Peak, the close peak in the lower right. If you look closely, you can see another party going down the ridge. We crossed them as they were coming back up to Mount Owen.
The view to the north, with the Maroon Bells in the center and Pyramid Peak to the right.
Nancy and Sadie descending the ridge towards Purple Peak.
Nancy and Sadie climbing the ridge up to Purple Peak.
Mount Owen as seen from Purple Peak.
The three of us on Purple Peak.