Whipple Mountain & Last Dollar Mountain
Independence Day | Tuesday, July 4, 2017
This year for Independence Day Diane and I woke up early and drove down to the west end of the Sneffels Range near Telluride to climb a couple of mountains just off the Last Dollar Road. We started out by hiking up the Whipple Trail to the summit of Whipple Mountain (11,922) which was about 1.5 miles in length with 1,500 feet of elevation gain. It was mostly up an easy trail lined with wildflowers and then the last section from the saddle to the summit was ...
Saturday & Sunday, August 2-3, 2014
This weekend Diane and I spent a nice relaxing overnight backpacking trip at the Blue Lakes in the Mount Sneffels Wilderness. I have wanted to hike up to the Blue Lakes for many years and am glad I was finally able to get up that way. The scenery was beautiful and the weather was nice all weekend, too. While it looked like we might receive some of the typical afternoon storms on Saturday, they managed to miss us and we never saw a drop of rain all weekend. There seemed to be quite a ...
Saturday, August 6, 2011
This morning I set out with my friend Jackson to climb my second 14er (after climbing Handies Peak last year). We got a very early start and drove to the upper trailhead in Yankee Boy Basin. Unfortunately, about halfway up, Jackson started not feeling so well and had to turn around. I continued on by myself to the summit (well, there were plenty of other people on the trail with me). There were a few sections that scared me a bit, but I was able to face my fears and continue to the top…and then ...