HUMBOLDT PEAK 7/27/86

HUMBOLDT PEAK 14,064'


Mountain........Humboldt Peak
Elevation.........14,064
Rank...............37th
Range..............Sangre de Cristo
Trail length......4 miles
Elevation gain..4,200'
Difficulty..........**
Comments........Easy climbing, impressive views

TRIP REPORT

7/27/86

We couldn't get our car very far up the access road to South Colony Lakes, so we parked just above the main parking area at the valley entrance. We hiked about two miles to the Rainbow Trail - Richard wanted to take a shortcut bushwhacking up a cliff, but I talked him out of it.

We followed the Rainbow Trail to the ridge top on the right (north) and then left the trail and took the very windy ridge west toward the summit. The bottom part required a lot of bushwhacking and route-finding; we determined that it was best just to stay atop the ridge. At the tree line we ran across a beautiful stand of gnarled bristlecones, took some pictures, then headed straight to the top.

The Crestones and Kit Carson looked pretty impressive from up there - we snapped some more pictures and headed back down the same way we came up. When we arrived back at the road, a passing truck picked us up and drove us back out to our car - the ride in the pickup bed bruised and hurt us more than walking would have.

We hopped in our car and drove on to the San Luis Peak trailhead as our gas tank dropped towards the big red "E".