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Summiting -- making it to the top -- is popular sport in the Colorado Rockies. With peaks in every direction, locating a target in Summit County is no problem. The folks at the National Forest information center in Silverthorne can make suggestions to any skill level.
< Click on panorama to enlarge (146K file)
Frequently, the hardest task is finding that absolutely perfect day that will still be clear when you reach the top. Challenge the mountain, not the mountain thunderstorm.
The Fourteeners
Colorado's mountain matriarchs are its 55 peaks over 14,000 feet. They are sprinkled along the high axis of the Rockies, never very far from the Continental Divide. Only two of them, ironically, are actually on the Divide. And Torreys Peak and Grays Peak are right in the backyard of Keystone about 8 miles to the east (see panorama above). The easiest approach is from the east side of the Divide. The trail starts near Bakerville, Exit 221 of I70.
Quandry Peak, the other Fourteener in Summit County, looms south of Breckenridge. Four more Fourteeners stand nearby just south of the Divide. In fine summer weather, the challenge is to do all four in a single day.
Mount Elbert, the highest point in the Rockies and second highest
summit in the Contiguous 48, is an hour away south of Leadville.
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