One day after Grays and Torreys Peaks my father and I made an early morning drive past Buena Vista to the Denny Creek Trailhead. A horse trailer to support a trail crew was taking up quite a bit of the parking lot and we were lucky to get a spot as the day’s hikers started showing up.
I’ve always thought this route on Yale to be one of the steeper all-trail routes on a 14er. Starting out we grunted up the initial switchbacks until we arrived at the slick log creek crossing.
Despite the steepness, I enjoy the forest this trail passes through in its lower section.
Trees gradually thinned out and we reached the alpine. I didn’t remember admiring the unnamed peak to our northwest before, but with an early-summer stripping of snow I thought 12,955 looked like a pretty objective for some other day.
Around treeline we also encountered the work crew from the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, who were re-routing the trail.
While clouds to the north blocked our views of the Apostles, the view south was less obstructed.
Climbing higher we encountered increasing winds and much colder air temperatures than the day before. All our extra layers came on as we reached the ridge and followed a cairned trail that snuck below the ridge crest towards the summit.
My father had been pushing himself relentlessly up without eating and was starting to bonk when we reached the top.
A bit of water and food seemed to help, but with the winds and restricted views we didn’t want to spend forever on the summit.
Still bundled up we left the summit and finally warmed up over a thousand feet lower where we went from numb fingers to packing away layers in about 5 minutes.
The rest of the descent was uneventful and we arrived back at the trailhead to find a bright, warm day waiting us at these lower elevations.
Complete photo album
