Tom Grundy's La Plata Peak Page

The weather forecast wasn't very promising so I went for a 5:15am wakeup and hiking before 6. At first this was more like a trail in the woods with bridges over a few creeks before it started to head uphill a lot and then proceeded up a valley and then up into the lowering clouds. By the time I got to the 14,336 ft summit it was starting to snow and soon the clouds and visibility dropped drastically. The snow was starting to stick too. There is a trail up from the other side that some guys came up so it would have been possible to make the bad mistake of heading down the wrong way. I managed to avoid that and dropped down below the snow and clouds into a drizzle. I managed to find and eat a few raspberries on the way down.

360 degree panorama before the clouds lowered and the visibility dropped - north is middle leftish

on top of La Plata - thanks for taking the pic other hikers

visibility dropped and the snow started to stick

there were plenty of misty clouds as I dropped back down

yum, raspberries

creek by the trail

That afternoon I went to Buena Vista where it was hot and sunny until it started to rain. It was still raining when I got to the next trailhead so I strung up a tarp to cook under. It was a pretty cold and dreary meal and I went to bed early.

Summary of August 29th, one 14er, about 9.25 miles and 4400 feet of elevation gain. It went fairly quickly moving continuously to stay warm and dryish. Some clouds, snow, rain, and raspberries.

Return to the Colorado 14ers Page

Return to the Index Page