Culebra Peak

Culebra is a little different from most of the Colorado fourteeners for several reasons. First, it is the southernmost fourteener, only ten miles from New Mexico. Second it is the eastern most fourteener and it stands alone without any other peaks nearly as high for quite some distance. Another thing that makes it unique is that it is on private property. There are several different owners for different parts of the mountain, and it has been closed to hiking for several years. Late last year one of the land owners in the area started allowing hikers again for a fee and on a limmited reservation bassis. When we discovered this, we decided to jump on the chance in case hiking becomes restricted here again in the future. So we made reservations for the first available hiking date in 2005. Above is a shot of us just after we left the car, still on the four-wheel drive road. To the right is a shot of Ski and Crash 'routefinding' after we had followed the wrong trail. Above right is a shot back down the first ridge, you can see myself and Ski in the center of the pic if you look close. You can also see the road we had walked up cutting across the picture.

We had to meet the owners of the ranch at the main gate at 6am. We arrived on time along with several other groups of hikers and waited till about 6:20 for the staff member to show up. We signed our waivers and paid our fees and were off. All of the other groups had elected to drive to the end of the four-wheel drive road which makes the hike alot shorter. We parked at 'four points' which is a crossroads at around 11,000 ft. To make the hike a legitamite fourteener, some associations require that you ascend 3,000 vertical ft. at a minimum. Driving to the end of the road would not allow that, so we added several miles on to our hike to acomplish that feat. We got off course very early as we hiked past the other vehicles and onto the wrong trail. It didnt take long to realize we were on the wrong trail, so we backtracked to the other vehichles and bushwacked our way to the top of the first ridge where we joined the main trail at the 'big cairn'. There are two shots of the cairn above, I believe its the largest one I have ever seen. Once we got to the cairn, we could see the peak we were going for. The shot below is from that point. To the left is a shot of a steep cliff that leads down to a lake and then some mountains in the background. Below left is a shot of a marmot catching some sun on a rock.

Crash got pretty far ahead of me and Ski and we just let him go. He smoked us to the summit by about 15 minutes and we were huffing and puffing to stay that close. To the right is a shot of me and Ski making the last ridge, Crash took the shot from the summit. Above and below are assorted summit shots of all of us. We met all the other groups up there and had a snack, and then noticed some clouds rolling in from the west. We packed up and decided to try to get down before any rain set in. After Tabegauche last week, and now some more talus, my ankles were bothering me, but we had to keep moving, being on that slick loose rock in the rain would be no fun.

To the left is a shot of us after we had got down off the loose rock and could take a breather. Now all we had was a grassy ridge and a four-wheel drive road to negotiate on the way out. From here Ski took off and left us on the way down. He made it down to the parking lot where all of the other hikers had parked and waited for us. Below is a shot of me with a not so fortunate former resident of the mountain. We met up with Ski and started down the road, and about ten minutes before we got back to the car, it started raining. Just enough to get us good and soaked before we hopped in the car for the four hour drive home. We stopped at the main gate and signed out and changed clothes since it had stopped raining for a spell. Below is a shot of us at the gate wiht the mountains behind us. We were done early (for once) and made it back to Denver in time to have some dinner at Bennigans.