West Elk Peak

Rock formations along the Mill Castle Trail en route to West Elk Peak, October 8th.

Fall has officially arrived in the Colorado high country. Days are getting noticeably shorter now, nights are chilling down and we’re past peak for fall colors with dustings of snow in the high alpine across the state. It’s always nice to get out around this time for those last few dry-ish peaks of the season, not knowing when things will definitively be snowed in for good.

Steve was up for getting out as well, and so we decided to head to the West Elk Wilderness northwest of Gunnison to hike its namesake high point, West Elk Peak. It seemed like a solid fall candidate as word on the street has always been the views and colors along the approach are spectacular when timed properly. And indeed, they didn’t disappoint.

Rendering of the route with our GPX track overlaid. Stats on the day were something like 19 miles and 4,900 ft. Click to enlarge.

The West Elk massif is separated enough from the rest of the central Elk peaks that it feels like its own little mini-range out in no man’s land between Crested Butte and the northern-San Juans. And in many ways it basically is. That’s not to say there isn’t plenty to explore however, as the West Elk Wilderness is the fifth largest in Colorado, covering over 176,000 acres.

At camp the night prior under the full Hunter’s Moon.

From the Mill Castle Trailhead to Storm Pass is a gradual 7 miles along a well-defined trail which parallels Mill Creek. Huge rock formations line both sides of the drainage along the way, framed by expansive aspen groves which were more or less in prime condition for us on this day.

Morning light on one of Mill Creek’s prominent rock formations.

And a pano looking northwest up the drainage. Click to enlarge.

Higher up now but still a long ways to go.

Eventually we broke tree line and zigzagged our way up the switchbacked trail to the top of Storm Pass just as a large group from the Western Trail Runners club descended past us. Despite the area having a remote feel to it we came across several other parties throughout the day. Evidently Mill Creek is a relatively popular trail for Gunnison locals and hunters alike.

The Mill Creek drainage terminates in a large bowl to the southeast of West Elk Peak.

Then the views to the north open up once you hit Storm Pass. The high peaks of the central Elks can be seen far in the distance. Click to enlarge.

From the pass it’s another 2 miles out along the ridge to gain the peak itself. Most of the terrain from the pass on held a few inches of fresh snow but it was easily doable in trail runners.

Jax lounging on the summit. It was a pretty nice October day up there.

Our ever-aging mugs.

Reversing the route back down had its perks too as the sun had swung around the sky far enough to light up a bunch of aspens and rock formations which were shaded earlier in the day. We didn’t break any speed records on the way out but eventually we returned to camp and promptly broke out the beer and flip flops.

On the long hike out.

And a little après barbeque before we packed up and headed on home.

Thanks for a fun outing Steve. Cheers to winter fast approaching…