Colorado August 2021

Leadville

First stop in Leadville was a very good pizza place called High Mountain Pies. 10/10, would recommend their “Crocodile Pizza”.

Mt. Elbert

We woke up at 0530 and were on the trail by 0620.

The first part of the hike took us through a fantasy-like aspen forest.

My first 14er, Mt. Elbert! What’s nice about this trail is that there wasn’t any rock scrambling required. So, although it is a long hike and there is a lot of elevation gain (~5000 ft for us), there’s no climbing required. We had some haze from the California wildfires, but overall it wasn’t terrible.

Note: Bring more water than you think you need. I had only been in CO for a couple days, and my body kept on wanting more water during the hike because of the elevation. I ended up getting minor altitude sickness (a small headache) on the summit, but some awesome hikers spared us some of their water to help out.

Lake Willow

Trail leading up to Willow Lake.

Willow Lake is an alpine lake near Crestone, CO. Many people camp at it and then attempt to summit some of the nearby 14ers. I just hiked up to the lake, starting in the mid-afternoon, and then came back down by the time the sun was setting.

Crestone is also a beautiful and interesting town with lots of culture and religions intermingling.

Great Sand Dunes NP

My final stop for this trip was at the Great Sand Dunes NP. I had a pretty great time wandering around the sand dunes and finding my own way across them. What cool about this park is that there aren’t any defined trails on the dunes. Instead, you can just pick wherever you want to go and go for it. After you get past the “front” dunes, closest to the visitor center, there is hardly anyone to be seen in the backcountry part of the park. I wandered around for a bit and felt like I was by myself in some Saharan dunes.