Grays Peak and Torreys Peak

July 14, 2019 / 14,270’ (Grays) & 14,267’ (Torreys)

RT STATS: TOTAL TIME - 4 HR AND 54 MIN, 8.21 MILES AND 3,608’ ELEVATION GAIN

TIME STATS: 1 HR & 56 MIN TO GRAYS, 13 MIN AT GRAYS SUMMIT, 38 MIN TO TORREYS, 30 MIN AT TORREYS SUMMIT, 1 HR & 38 MIN BACK TO TRAILHEAD

RATING (HOW MUCH I LIKED THE HIKE): 3/10

Grays Peak and Torreys Peak….the only weekend this summer that I can say that I summited 4 14ers in just over a 24 hour time span! To be honest, I didn’t know how I felt about this hike…it was going to be my first time this summer hiking 14ers back-to-back, so I was a little nervous about that. Going into this hike, it was cool to be knocking off 2 14ers again (the day after Mt. Belford and Mt. Oxford), but I knew that, since these are “easy” 14ers, there was going to be a lot of people out hiking.

We decided to leave Colorado Springs a whole 30 minutes later than usual, so we left at 4 am. We arrived at the trailhead (or at least near it) at about 6:30 am. The road was definitely a little rough but 2WD made it fine. The road had just recently been cleared from avalanche debris a week prior I believe. I was debating doing Grays Peak and Torreys Peak instead of Mt. Bierstadt on the 4thof July, but I decided against it because of the debris and the unnecessary mileage it would have added to the hike (I wanted to be super careful with my foot).

We parked on the side of the road and had to walk about 5 minutes to the actual trailhead. We started the hike just before 7am. The beginning of the hike was fairly flat and there was some snowfields to cross. The hike was a perfectly groomed trail to the top of Grays Peak. I have to say the reason I did not like this hike was because it was a Class 1 trail with so many people on it. It took 1 hour and 56 minutes to reach the top of Grays Peak. We stayed up there for 13 minutes before heading over to Torreys Peak. 

The hike over to Torreys Peak was much more fun that the hike up to Grays Peak. It is actually a Class 2 trail and at least was not some perfect trail with no scree or rocks like the hike up to Grays Peak was. It took us 38 minutes to reach Torreys Peak. The typical summit events occurred—eating trail mix, taking pictures, and reapplying sunscreen. Something cool that happened on the summit was all the people using my cardboard sign. Four different groups of people took pictures with my sign. In case you haven’t noticed, for each hike, I make a cardboard sign with the mountain name, elevation, and the date. I do take pictures without the sign, but having the sign is nice to remember the actual mountain that a picture is from. I can tell for now which mountain pictures were from, but, hopefully as I hike more mountains, the cardboard signs will come in handy to differentiate the hikes! 

We spent 30 minutes at the summit of Torreys Peak before heading back down. Once we got to the saddle, we veered left and started to descend (hence, did not resummit Grays Peak) across snowfields. The snowfields sucked because I lost the basket to one of my hiking poles the day prior so it made crossing the snow slightly more difficult. I completely fell backwards and to my side, hitting my head on the snow on the descent through the snowfield. I wasn’t hurt or anything, but I just laid there for a couple seconds thinking about how I told myself I would not accidentally slip on the snow. It was nice getting out of the snowfields finally. About 50 minutes after leaving the summit, I spot a mountain goat and take a picture. As I get closer (still on route, did not intentionally go off route to get a picture), I took a selfie with the mountain goat and he is now my bff. I look awful but I had to post it!!!!!!

It took us 1 hour and 38 minutes to get from the Torreys summit back to the trailhead. The overall stats for the trip were 4 hours and 53 minutes, 8.21 miles (my birthday!!!), and 3,608 ft. elevation gain. We left the trailhead and most of the cars that we saw when we started were still there. We headed over to Idaho Springs to get some brunch and, on the way over, it started storming and pouring rain. I could only think about how the weather over at the nearby Grays and Torreys was.

Finding parking in Idaho Springs was not fun. It was raining hard and we literally drove around for probably close to 30 minutes before parking. We had to walk 5 minutes to the place (which is nothing compared to the hike), but it had stopped raining so that was nice. We ate at a place called Main Street Restaurant. I ordered the Huevos Benedict and also got a cup of green chili. Not sure if it was because I was super hungry or if it was because the food was amazing, but I finished the whole meal! It was nice getting brunch after the hike, since, because of the time that we start the 14er hikes and the length of some of them, brunch is not always an options! A couple hours after I got home, I refueled with some sweet potato fries, pasta salad, and steak that I had made earlier in the week!

Overall, it was nice to knock off 2 14ers in Grays Peak and Torreys Peak, but I can’t say that this is a 14er that I would love to do again. I’m sure eventually I will do it again, but there will be a good reason for it!