Now that mid July is upon us, Sarah and I decide that it is time to try and tackle a 14er. As I have never done one before, we decide to do her favorite, Mt. Sneffels. Mt. Sneffels is 14,150ft tall and is located in the San Juan mountain range north of Durango, CO. We decide to take Friday off of work and head up to Ouray, CO and spend a night on the town before tackling the wilderness.
We arrive in Ouray early in the afternoon and drop our stuff off at the Matterhorn Hotel. After unpacking we head out onto the town and eventually land at a local Mexican restaurant that has amazing margaritas. After slurping a few down we head back to the hotel and change for our fancy pants dinner at a local joint. We both get the fillet Mignonne and it's amazing.
Saturday morning we get up and head out to the Blue Lakes Trail head at 9350ft. After packing our bags and doing one last equipment check, we head up the trail.
The mountains in the San Juan range seam very different from those of the front range near Denver. The front range mountains are very gentle, slowly sloping to the top. The mountains in the San Juan seam meaner, and more jagged, which gives them an intimidating look.
The hike to the Blue Lakes is only 3.5 miles and we take our time hiking it, taking frequent stops for pictures.
Once we reach the lakes we pick a camp site and set up at 10,900ft. We then head up the trail to get an overhead view of the lake. From the picture it should be obvious why it's called the Blue Lakes. They look like the Caribbean and I wish I had taken more pictures, but...
Sarah didn't charge her battery and her camera promptly died. Now we have another day and a half of backpacking and no record... (in fairness I forgot the memory card to my camera, so the blame is really shared).
We spend the afternoon collecting firewood and just enjoying each other company and head to bed around 10pm.
We get up bright and early on Sunday and with our day packs head up to Sneffels. The accent takes up pass the other two Blue Lakes and up over the Blue Lakes Pass (12,959ft). From here we loose 650 of elevation and end up at the base of Sneffels. We start up the boulder field and eventually make the peak about 3 hours later. The view is amazing with mountains in all directions. We sit and enjoy the company of some other climbers for 20 minutes before heading back down.
After hiking back up over the Blue Lakes Pass and down to our base camp, we pack up our gear and head back to the car.
Overall it was an amazing hike on a beautiful mountain. We did 5500ft of elevation gain and about 15 miles of backpacking. I just wish that we had more pictures to prove it. I've now done my first Colorado 14er with more to come as the year progresses.
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