Hiking Mt. Evans

I was recently given the opportunity to travel to Denver, CO for business. I decided to extend my trip so I could stay through the weekend and see some of the sites - particularly the Rocky Mountains. Another coworker had a similar idea and extended his trip as well. He has been on several backpacking trips all over the country so when it came to a day hike, I knew I had a qualified guide.

After a brief meeting on Friday morning we decided to look for a place to hike. A couple of the people we met with had some suggestions; one that stuck was a climb up one of the Colorado "Fourteeners" - Mount Evans. Having spent my entire life in the extremely flat Midwestern United States I'm not sure why this didn't alarm me - I blame my already limited oxygen input from staying in the Mile-High City.

We started our drive from Denver and entered the Arapaho National Forest where we began our ascent up the base of the mountain. I was immediately struck by how beautiful the views were on the drive up.

A view of Echo Lake at the entrance to the park.

Driving farther up the mountain road, we stopped a lookout point facing to the East. It was only now that I realized this would be unlike anything I had done before. The temperature had dropped from the warmer 85 degrees in Denver to a much colder and breezy 62 degrees.

Looking out to the east almost half the vertical distance to the trail.

We parked at the bottom of the summit and packed up some water, snacks, and extra clothing. Before we even got to the trail head we spotted some mountain goats happily posing for pictures as people passed by. The trail quickly turned from a groomed and wide path to a barely worn dirt trench. We filled out the hikers safety card (another "should-have-been" red flag for this adventure) and pressed upward. The elevation gain was taking a toll on my pace and I was becoming winded from fewer steps. I took a break on large rock ledge (unknown to me) and took a picture of the lakes in a valley towards the North - a beautiful sight.

The Chicago Lakes down in the northern valley.

Moving on, we descended down the side of Mt. Mt. Spalding, and started the ascent up the side of Mt. Evans. The path become much more rocky and barren. We often missed the cairn trail markers and needed to backtrack a bit to find the proper way up towards the summit.

Many more rocks as we approach the side of Mt. Evans.

We soon realized that we had gone as far as we could with the light we had left - the sun was beginning to set behind the mountains. We took a quick rest and I tried to get as many pictures as I could of this amazing view - the pictures are a poor replacement for the actual scene.

A panorama near the top of the summit.

The sun setting over the Rocky Mountains.

I drank some water and ate as much of a Clif bar as I could stomach, we started our hike back down. Descending was certainly faster, but by this time my body was struggling at even the smallest step - a combination of the lack of oxygen, poor water intake, and not enough food. I was getting weaker and could feel my boots hitting the tops of the rocks, but knew we had to continue or risk being caught without any light.

The shadows grew longer as we made our descent.

We reached the start of the trail head just in time, the last bit of light was disappearing behind the range after the sun had set. Having time to sit helped settle my nerves and let me catch my breath. Looking back up at the summit was suddenly so calming. I had just climbed a mountain. The feeling was incredible and something I hope I never forget - I now understand the addiction.

Made it to the ground just in time - the sun was gone.

More photos of the hike can be seen in my Flickr set - Mt. Evans.