Mt. Elbert - Colorado High Point - 14,440 feet. 9.5 miles, 4700 feet elevation gain (Northeast Ridge)

After the San Juan Mountains, we spent some time in the Sawatch Range and we ended up camping at the Elbert Creek campground. I had been to the San Juan Mountains before, but not Leadville or the surrounding wilderness, so I was looking forward to visiting a new spot. I have to say Leadville was not what I was expecting - Leadville and the area looks a lot different from the mountain towns in the San Juans. While we enjoyed our time in the Sawatch, I think I do prefer the San Juans.

We arrived on a Wednesday evening and had no problems getting a spot in the Elbert Creek CG (First come, First served). With the Labor Day holiday weekend approaching, we decided to just camp here for a few nights instead of trying to find other spots. It worked out well as we didn't have to worry about parking at the Mt. Elbert trailhead, which can fill up very early (the campground is just across the road). Steve was up early again the next morning as he was hiking both Mt. Elbert and Mt. Massive and Norah and I started a little later to hike Elbert (not too much later though because we knew it was a big hike and we wanted to avoid any potential afternoon storms). With 4700 feet elevation gain over 4.5 miles - this one is a climb and it definitely felt like a slog at times. Especially above treeline with the false summits, rocks, and some talus. Most of the hikers we saw were taking frequent breaks - the exception being the young woman in heels and a red dress that was hiking up the mountain like it was no big deal. Impressive! Even though we live at 7000 feet and had been in the mountains for five days hiking, we still felt the altitude (or maybe we're just not in the best shape. But I like blaming the altitude).

To be honest, when we finally reached the summit it was a little anticlimatic. We felt good to be standing on the high point of Colorado and the views were nice, but we weren't as wowed as were on Handies or other spots in the San Juans. But after all the work of getting there we were clearly going to enjoy the fruit of our labor. It was a pleasant spot to sit and enjoy (in between dodging the creeper ground squirrels that kept accosting us). Our descent was a lot faster than going up and we made good time back to camp.