La Plata Peak is the fifth tallest mountain in Colorado and is located in the Sawatch Range, not too far from Mt. Elbert. The weather forecast was ideal: no chance of rain/thunderstorms; in fact, there were no clouds in the sky, and it was a bluebird day. I thought this was going to be a straight-forward, probably boring, albeit beautiful, hike. I was wrong.
La Plata Peak from the road walk.There’s not tons of parking off of Independence Pass, and we got one of the last spots. We started our hike at 7 AM on the dot.The woods are nice and level at the beginning. It’s private property, so please be respectful. I saw human poop and toilet paper on the person’s land. The offender didn’t even try to cover it up and is probably going to ruin the opportunity for others to enjoy this hike from this trailhead.There is a nice bridge to go over a significant water crossing.This is the view from the bridge. It’s a mini-gorge that carved out a bowl in one spot. It was a totally surprise to me that we would see something like this.Another water crossing. The logs are stable and easy to walk on.Once over the last crossing, and after some more beautiful woods and level ground, you start to climb. It’s gravelly sand; the rocks help on the descent.These steps made it nice to go up this steep part. It also helps with erosion, which was evident throughout this first section of the hike.More steep climbing on gravelly sand.The summit of something. John kept checking the “Peak Finder” app, and there were no names for a bunch of them. I think it’s a fluke; they’re too big not to have names.You follow a creek for this section of the hike. On the descent John saw a coyote on the trail that quickly went over the creek to get to the safety of the woods on the other side. I was lucky enough to see it too. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a picture. It was a treat to see!At this point, we’ve completed the steep section sans switchbacks. It’s level for a ways to help you recover for what’s ahead.The meadow along the level trail. I was hoping to see wildlife here, especially since it was still cool (cold for me, actually. I was glad to have my winter mittens.)There are a lot of short switchbacks on this section of the hike. Normally, I’m not the biggest fan of them, but this was our fourth 14-er in five days, and it helped. The sun has not crested the ridge yet.View from the switchbacks looking in the direction from which we came.Higher up in the switchbacks section, though these were longer than the ones below. John took this beautiful picture. Notice the cumulus clouds.Looking back at John. This section of the hike is an absolute treat! You can see the longer switchbacks snaking below.Another gorgeous view. We’re not concerned about these clouds.Looking up toward the summit. The trail is getting a little rougher.La Plata Peak. Look at all that talus sloping down from the ridge. Yikes! We’re approaching the next section of the hike.Rocks, rocks, and more rocks. This section is well-defined with rocks positioned as steps, switchbacks, and cairns mark the way. Of course, there were marmots and pika. We also saw a ptarmigan camouflaged with the rocks. We still have a lot of elevation to gain in under a mile from the summit.Imagine traversing that jagged ridge. Looks fun and exhausting. Probably class-5 climbing.Uh oh, that cloud overhead is looking pretty dark…Luckily, the trail is to the right of the snow and not under it.Oh, geez. We’re not there, yet. It looks like a jumbled mess, but we’re still able to follow a defined path.The actual summit is in view, once you pass the bump of boulders that fakes you out from below. We could see rain trailing from the clouds overhead, but they didn’t look like thunderheads, and it was still cool, so we thought we were fine.Within feet from the summit there was a rumble of thunder and a light splattering of rain. John and I ran to it, and I took this selfie because he turned around right away.
There were two other couples and another guy with a dog on the summit, too. We all booked it and ran down the crux of the hike: the gravelly, sandy, rocky steep section that got us to the prize. I was in last place because I got my poles out; that was the only way I was going to descent “safely.” During this point marble-sized hail was falling down on us; there was no time to put on protective clothing.
I saw John’s bag on the ground on the trail and thought he was hurt. He was waiting for me, crouched down. He yelled up to me that he heard buzzing around his head; that’s why he dropped his gear. I was like, “what about the car key?” but he was already running again. He stopped when he thought we were as safe as we were going to be in this awful situation (it was still very dangerous).
We waited for about 20 minutes in the “lightning pose.” John told me that he had felt “weird” and his hair was standing up, and that’s why he dropped his stuff. Crazy that I didn’t feel any of the static, though everyone else did. It didn’t seem like the cloud was moving but eventually edged away from directly over the summit. That’s when he ascended again to retrieve it. I waited and took this picture of the cloud. It seemed to have come out of nowhere.
After he returned with his pack, we ran down the steep part of the trail, and ran some more on the level trail with the expansive view. We didn’t stop until we were in the short switchback section; at least there were trees that were taller than we were. We took our time for the remainder of the hike; we were exhausted from all the “excitement.”
Is this from a bear? Or a porcupine? I don’t think it’s from a moose of deer; it looks like teeth or claw marks, not rubbing.Since we didn’t get a selfie of the both of us at the summit, we took one on the bridge over the gorge. We were almost done!
This was one of the most tiring hikes I’ve ever done. Is it because it was harrowing and we had to run a bunch of it? Was it because we had been hiking so much, and our legs weren’t fresh anymore? Maybe it’s every reason. I struggled driving home. We ordered food online from Sweeties. Well, John did, then it deleted the order, then we didn’t have service; he kind of (definitely) had a melt-down, which was understandable. We both went into the restaurant to pick up the food, and I washed my legs in the sink (don’t worry, I cleaned up afterwards). That way, as soon as we got home, I could go straight to bed for a nap. Eating would have to wait.
Adventuring with Mel and John 