Culebra Peak and Red Mountain
July 27, 2019 / 14,047’ (Culebra) & 13,908’ (Red)
RT Stats: Total time - 5 Hr & 25 min, 6.75 Miles, and 3,748’ elevation gain
Time stats: 1 hr & 50 min to culebra, 13 min at culebra summit, 55 min to red mt., 21 min at red mt. summit, 2 hr & 6 min back to trailhead
rating (how much i liked the hike): 8/10
Culebra Peak was another unique 14er in that there is not really a set route to the top. You kind of just hike up. My friend Dennis met us at the Anchor Motel and we left the motel at 4:15 am. Culebra Peak is on private property so it costs $150 per person to get on Cielo Vista Ranch. We arrived to the gate at around 5:40 am and waited probably 15 minutes before the gate was opened. The guy at the gate checked us in and then we all drove to the ranch house where they gave a quick talk. We drove on to the 4WD trailhead which started at roughly 11,600 ft. There was only one guy out of the whole group of hikers that day who started at 4-Way which adds on a mile each way and ~500 ft. of elevation.
My dad suggested that Dennis and I go ahead and get Red Mountain. Red Mountain is a top 100 Colorado mountain also on the Cielo Vista Ranch property. We set off and the hike was extremely steep up until we reached the ridge crest at approximate 13,300 ft. I took my poles out a little after 12,000 ft once I realized this was going to be pretty steep for a while. Also around this time, I took off my leggings (which I should have just kept on since it got very windy later on).
On the ridge crest, there was a huge rock cairn and we proceeded to the right. We descended probably just over 100 ft. and reach a saddle-like area. After this saddle area, we basically just hike up a lot of rocks/talus until we reached the summit of Culebra Peak. I slipped on these rocks and banged up my knee a little, but nothing that bad.
2.34 miles (shout out to the very steep first half of the hike!) and 1 hour and 50 minutes later, we reached the summit! It was extremely windy and cold up there. A cool thing that happened at the top was seeing a guy finish all 58 14ers. He reached the summit a couple minutes before us and brought champagne and food to celebrate.
We did not spend much time at the summit (13 minutes) before starting the hike over to Red Mountain. The hike down to the saddle between Culebra Peak and Red Mountain involved descending down a ton of rocks/talus. At this point, the wind was pretty epic and my hands were going numb (no fun). While descending, I put my leggings back on and no longer was wearing my fashionable, mismatched Patagonia and Nike Pro spandex outfit (sad). After we reached the saddle, the hike up to Red Mountain was a lot of switchbacks with the terrain being loose scree. It took 55 minutes to reach Red Mountain from the summit of Culebra and my watch recorded the total trip distance so far as 3.38 miles. Red Mountain was the windiest spot of the whole hike. The pictures from the top of Red Mountain are awful due to the extreme wind. Therefore, no pictures will be posted from the top of Red Mountain :)
We shared the summit with a couple that has hiked every Colorado 14er and is now trying to get the Colorado Top 100 Peaks. They hiked Culebra Peak 12 years ago, but did not hike Red Mountain at the time so they had to come back to summit it. We left the summit after about 20 minutes. On the way back, we did not go back up to Culebra Peak. We cut the tangent slightly but not that much. We talked to this couple intermittently on the way back down. The guy told us about he turned he basically turned his life around and it was cool to hear.
At the end of the hike (and at the beginning, but nothing significant happened then), there was a stream crossing. Of course with literally only 2 minutes left in the hike, I slip on a rock and fall in the stream. My Nike Pro spandex, leggings, and shoes are completely soaked now (but I’m not hurt so all is good). Not quite sure how I slipped twice on this hike!!! It took us 2 hours and 6 minutes to return to the 4WD trailhead from Red Mountain. The overall trip stats are 6.75 miles, 5 hours and 25 minutes, and 3,748 ft. elevation gain. I was worried that my dad and sister would be waiting for us to get back, but it turns out they had not been waiting too long for us so that was good!
We left the 4WD trailhead and drove down to the house where we signed out. We continued to the gate where we were first let in to the ranch property earlier that morning. We used a code to unlock a lock with a key in it to open the gate. Melissa’s dumb so I had to go help her open it.
After we shut the gate back and hop it, once again, I go on Yelp to find a place to eat. We wanted some Mexican food (is this a surprise or should it be understood I always am down for Mexican food??) and the place that I found on Yelp was closed down, yet still listed. Luckily nearby, there was a place called Mrs. Rio’s Mexican Restaurant!!!! SURPRISE SURPRISE…I guess that the name of the place hasn’t been changed, since its menu has much more Thai food than Mexican food. What a combo restaurant-Mexican and Thai like that’s new!!! PLOT TWIST…instead of ordering Mexican, I ordered the Combination Green Curry (chicken, shrimp, and beef) with a spiciness level of 2 (on a 1 through 5 scale with 5 being the spiciest). Let me tell you, I should NOT have ordered that spicy level. My mouth was burning and it took me forever to finish the meal. I kept drinking a ton of water (which I realize doesn’t help), but it was hard not to with my mouth on fire. It was still a good meal, but I wish that I had listened to the waitress when she said that the 2 spicy level was too much for her. Lesson learned, next time I’m back at Mrs. Rio’s Mexican Restaurant in San Luis, I will be SMART about what spiciness level I order.
After lunch, we quickly go back to the Anchor Motel before heading up to Leadville. Took a picture of my bandaged battle scars ;) Anchor Motel was quite the place (hmu if you wanna know why)…Tomorrow, my dad, my sister, and I were going to hike Mt. Massive (right next to Leadville), so about 3.5 hours away. Once we got to Leadville, we checked into our hotel and went to High Mountain Pies. Similar to last weekend, I split a medium chicken and meatball pizza. No pizza picture this time, check out the Mt. Shavano and Tabeguache Peak post if you want to see some delicious pizza.
