A Journey Through Colorado

I finally got out again, this time I went to summit county in the central part of Colorado. the county is also home to several famous ski resorts including, Keystone, Copper Mountain and Breckenridge and is in close proximity to Vail, but I didn't go anywhere near the resorts. I went north of all of them to a little traveled mountain pass called Ute Pass it is about 10 miles north of Silverthorne on Highway 9. It has great views of the eastern side of the Gore Mountains. The photo above is of some of the peaks of the eastern Gores. On the left is Peak Z towards the back of the ridgeline and on the right in the back a little towards the center of the photo is Peak S and Peak T (they are the very dramatic and extremely rugged spires) then on the right of that is Peak J, then K, then L, towards the right of that towards the front is Guyselman then on the right and in front as well is Peak N then the furthest right is Peak O. Most of these are not official names but are nicknames or in this case letter categorization. Some of them I do not believe are even official mountain peaks like Peak N and O, but I believe they are sub peaks of Guyselman (also known as Peak M).

This photo was taken on an extrmemely hazy morning, I was very disappointed it doesn't make for very sharp photos, but I was able to come away with one photo from this area.

The Gore mountains are part of the little known (and I am glad for it) Eagles Nest Wilderness. Even though it is near several world famous ski resorts and is definitely one of Colorado's more spectacular mountains, it doesn't get much attention nor traffic due to the fact that it doesn't contain any of the much loftier 14,000 foot peaks of other mountain ranges in Colorado, and the popularity of a wilderness is based on it's proximity to 14,000 foot peaks or how many the wilderness contains, and since there aren't any 14'ers as we Coloradans like calling them, this wilderness is by the most part ignored. Piney Lake about 16 miles north of Vail is one of the only exceptions to this.

I then went back south to Lake Dillon which is close to the ski resort Keystone. Lake Dillon is a popular and large recreational lake, but at this time of year it is still frozen over as the photo above indicates. The photo was taken on the south west side of the lake, closer to Breckenridge. IT was taken from an overlook off of the road, and is a small hike down to get to it. The photo is viewing Peak One and Ten Mile Peak the northern end of the Ten Mile Range which houses Breckenridge. Peak One and Ten Mile Peak are probably considered the runts of the Ten Mile Range since they are the lowest peaks on the range at an elevation of only 12,900 feet, compare that to the much loftier Quandary peak at 14,265 feet at the ranges southern end and several other peaks at 13,800 plus feet near Quandary. Though Peak One and Ten Mile Peak are not very high by Colorado standards they are quite the dramatic sight from the small town of Frisco on the western side of Lake Dillon and at the northern extreme of the Ten Mile Range, they are also highly visible from Highway 9 south of Frisco and are quite dramatic rising above the highway quite abruptly with a very rugged eastern face. These would make a nice climb for me one of these days.....oooh how I wish I was in better shape. Believe me, I will be getting in shape since I will be backpacking the Eagles Nest Wilderness this summer, but that is an entirely different blog.

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