After camping at the trailhead to climb Mt Elbert, I decided that I needed a little luxury for the remaining two 14ers that I wanted to climb. So, I got a nice room at a Salida hotel with a nice hot tub to soothe my aching body. I chose Salida since I had spent a lot of time in Leadville the first time I climbed 14ers in Colorado and had spent most of this trip either on the trail, in Buena Vista or Twin Lakes. Salida would be a nice change of pace.

I took a day off after Mt Elbert, but planned on climbing Mt Yale the following day. Unlike the horrible weather that followed me down from the summit of Mt Elbert, the weather report was looking great with clear skies and no rain in sight. Of course, in the mountains weather can surprise you regardless of the weather report.

I got up early Saturday, grabbed a Sausage McMuffin with Egg from McDonald’s (the only restaurant open that early), and headed towards the Denny Creek Trailhead. Being early, it was pitch dark and there were no streetlights on the rural section of Highway 50 that I was driving on.

Unfortunately, when a couple of deer appeared suddenly in my headlights I swerved and braked, but hit one of them.

I pulled over and looked, but couldn’t see the deer anywhere. Checking my Jeep, I had some corner bumper damage, so hopefully it was just a glancing blow and the deer was okay. My Jeep was still drive-able, so after a delay and some duct tape to hold some of the bumper pieces together, I resumed my drive to the trailhead.

With the sun starting to light up the sky, I did pause to take some pictures of the Sawatch range along the way.

At the trailhead I didn’t need my headlamp, so started up the trail towards Mt Yale.

It was a fairly easy walk through the forest, if a bit long. It got steeper as I neared the treeline and the views of the surrounding mountains helped lift my spirits and keep me climbing.

Then the switchbacks began. The bane of my existence!

Since I was pretty rested, I didn’t have any problems along these, it just took time to go back and forth… and back and forth… and back and forth… 🙂

And back and forth…

As Mt Yale came into view, I could see where the switchbacks continued up the side of the ridge and then the rocky ridge that I’d have to navigate to reach the summit. Again, it was a long way, but didn’t look insurmountable.

Reaching the ridge and leaving the switchbacks behind me, I looked up the ridge towards the summit and took a break. From the side it didn’t look too bad, but from the ridge it looked like a very rough and rocky path to get to the summit.

After a nice break, I started the final climb towards the summit. The path was a little intermittent, so I had to do my best to find the best way to reach the summit. Sometimes I had other people to follow, but other times (after they quickly pulled ahead of this slow, old guy) I had to make my best guess at which route to take. Most were correct, but I did end up making a bad turn that took me up too high at one point and I had to backtrack a little to find the better path to the summit.

It took a long time, but I finally reached the summit of Mt Yale shortly after 2pm.

Mt Yale 14,196 feet!!! My fifteenth Colorado 14er overall and eighth for this trip.

Fabulous views all around! Being a Saturday, there were quite a few people (over a dozen, I think) up on the summit, but there were plenty of views to go around. It was easily the most crowded summit had reached this trip. Besides Antero, I actually had at least a few minutes alone on top of all the other summits.

I did get a chuckle at the rock wrapped in gauze that someone had written the name of the mountain and the elevation on. Although not the RIGHT elevation (14,238 vs the correct 14,196 feet). 🙂

Despite my legs wanting me to become a mountain hermit and stay at the summit, I eventually had to start down to the pizza and bed that awaited me in Salida.

As usual, the route down wasn’t always obvious and wasn’t always the same as the route up. At least I avoided another dead end on the way down.

The switchbacks were pretty easy to navigate on the way down and before long I was back in the forest headed back to the trailhead.

While it took most of the day, it still wasn’t as long of a hike as the hikes to the summits of the three 14ers that I climbed along the Colorado Trail.

On my way back to Salida, I again had a chance to see some nice sunset colors along the Sawatch Range as I drove down the highway. The colors may have been the best Sunset colors of the trip. A nice way to end the day along with the pizza. 🙂