Wilson Peak

August 1, 2020 / 14,017’

RT STATS: TOTAL TIME - 8 HR & 27 MIN, 12.53 MILES, AND 3,864’ ELEVATION GAIN

TIME STATS: 4 HR & 13 MIN HR TO SUMMIT , 23 MIN AT SUMMIT, 3 HR & 51 MIN BACK TO Car (Stream Crossing)

RATING (HOW MUCH I LIKED THE HIKE): 8/10

Woo hoo…First peak in the Wilson Group and first peak in the San Juans this year! My dad was still here visiting me, so I got to do another 14er with him!! We drove down to Telluride (about 6 hours away from the Springs) on Friday and spent the night there before hiking Wilson Peak that Saturday morning. My dad did not like one song on my playlist—Jumper by Third Eye Blind (first line of the song….oops). I have to say….I loved Telluride, even though we only got to look around for a couple hours. We ate some AMAZING Mexican food at this plate called La Cocina de Luz. I got two chicken enchiladas with veggies and brown rice as sides, an extra side of veggies, and split half of the entree salad with my dad. A lot of food!

The next morning, we woke up around 4:15 am and left the hotel around 4:45 am. We hiked Wilson Peak on the Southwest ridge route from the Rock of Ages Trailhead. Well actually, we parked the car about 1.2 miles from the actual TH because we didn’t want to cross the Big Bear Creek stream (this spot was only about ~100’ less elevation than that of the trailhead so it was a quick trip to the TH). We started the hike from the crossing at 5:50 am and it only took 23 minutes to get to the actual TH.

We followed the Rock of Ages 429 trail for a bit. Not too long after, we made a left turn and hiked on an orange/red rocky ridge type of deal. And pretty soon after that, we got over first view of Wilson Peak…woo hoo!!!!

The hike was relatively flat up to this point and continued to be for the next little bit before we finally started to ascend some! We passed a demolished looking rock house a little over 12,000’ elevation. Where is the airbnb for this house?! I WANT TO STAY THERE. Just kidding, it’s on someone’s private property….sad.

After passing this house is where the route got confusing af. The 14ers website said on the Rock of Ages Approach route that route finding was “low”. HAHA….we were not sure about the actual route from here to the saddle (about 800’ in gain). We found trail segments and there were various cairns on this portion of the hike; however, there certainly was not a distinct route where route finding is “low”. I’ve done enough of these by now to understand route finding and this was not “low”. I didn’t take many pictures on this part…..because the more exciting part was the last 1000’ of the hike!

After 5.3 miles/2 hours and 39 minutes, we reached the Rock of Ages saddle (elevation 13,050’)!!!! We put on our helmets at this point and took a quick break. We had a great view of Mt. Wilson (on the left) and El Diente (on the right) in the third picture below. I tried taking a kristin selfie (pre-helmet) with Wilson in the background but the glare from the sun kinda messed it up.

We continued our trek up to Wilson Peak. We gained a little less than 300’ before reaching the saddle between Wilson Peak and Gladstone Peak (a class 4 top 100 peak). I will be honest and go ahead and say that from here until the summit was kind of a let down after Crestone Needle last week lol. The excitement (read: exposure/danger) and amount of climbing required on the Needle was so much more than what was needed on Wilson Peak. Anyways, it was still a blast and the best class 3 part of the climb was near the false summit! Similar to last week’s post on the Needle, I am just going to post a lot of pictures from the saddle up until the summit. Enjoy!! ;)

6.26 miles/4 hours and 13 minutes later, my dad and I reached the 14,017’ summit of Wilson Peak! YAY! The summit views this week were AMAZING compared to the views on the Needle. The Needle summit was incredibly foggy (as you might’ve read on that post…if not, check it out, IT WON’T DISAPPOINT ;) ), so there were basically no “views” last week. Again, there was a great view of Mt. Wilson and El Diente in the background of our summit pictures. For my solo pictures, I took off my helmet so I could get some “cute” pictures where I am not wearing “the helmet” (some feedback I got because “all I post is about hiking” hahaha sorry but I don’t care since it’s fun).

We stayed up on the summit for 23 minutes before descending. I feel like most of my posts when I talk about the descent are lame relative to the ascent portion. THIS ONE IS THE SAME, WHAT A SURPRISE. Here are a couple cool pictures (lmao) of the descent down to the Rock of Ages saddle…I took my helmet off upon getting to the saddle!

So, as I mentioned earlier, the Rock of Ages approach between the old shack (that is NOT on airbnb smh) and the saddle is not very clear. We thought it would be more clear on the descent but it certainly was not. We went down a very loose scree slope (I took my poles out at this part to use for the remainder of the hike). It was sketchy af. It is a mining area… there were boards with rusty nails lying around and some broken glass from smashed bottles. Not only did I have to be extra careful descending because of this steep terrain, but I also had to look out for this sketch stuff. Oh well…it was a relief once we got back to the old shack, since the rest of the hike would be very chill.

My dad and I took some dope pictures with Wilson Peak in the background on the descent. Don’t worry…. I have more exciting content coming up.

We got back to the real TH at the 8:06 mark. We hiked 21 more minutes before getting back to our car. FIRST EXCITING CONTENT PART: THE SHY RAV4 HIDING BEHIND A TREE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STREAM. I took a stunning picture of the car once I crossed the stream…wow, amazing. We finished the hike in 8 hours and 27 minutes….yay….much shorter than last week! We left pretty soon after and headed back to the Springs! We ate at Qdoba in Montrose (double chicken burrito bowl gang yo) and I LOVE SOUTHWESTERN/MEXICAN FOOD. I love Qdoba/Chipotle/Moe’s when I’m on the road. I cook for myself all the time but those are first choices when I’m on a trip! We got back to Colorado Springs around 9pm that night. Wilson Peak #37 14er complete! I was telling my dad how I can’t wait to come back to Telluride…until next time!!!