anyone have experience with camping in grizzly gulch (north side of Torreys Peak)?

we have a group coming to hike grays/torreys in july, and we were thinking about camping somewhere in grizzly, but have no idea if water supply is clean/safe in that valley, nor whether its reasonable to hike up to kelso ridge from that side....


any thoughts?

Plan on filtering any water generally. Some will debate the need, but that's a separate discussion really.

What exactly do you mean by 'hike'? Kelso isn't what I would call a hike, it's more a scramble that needs some routefinding with healthy exposure. If you're looking for a literal hike, the East/North Slopes of Grays, Chihuahua Gulch, or West Ridge might be more appropriate. For Kelso, Roach notes "This ridge is a climb, not a hike."

If you mean can you approach the saddle between Kelso and Torreys, sure. Expect rock hopping and talus scrambling to gain the ridge. Coming from Steven's is easier.

thanks for the response. i always filter/purify just for safety, but what i'm talking about is poison. you can't filter/purify arsenic or any toxin for that matter....

so i'm wondering whether or not there are dangerous levels of arsenic/other toxins in the water from the mines....... i'm surprised by how many drink water from the rivers in the rockies without checking into such things....... quite a few don't even know the danger is there...... that's just crazy to me.......

and you are correct, i should not use the word hike for that route.... i was just interested to know if any had gained kelso ridge from grizzly and what it was like.... we are aware that once we gain the ridge, the route to torreys is more of a climb at that point...... we were just wondering what the route TO the ridge was like from grizzly.....


thanks again for the response!

Forgive me, but I saw you were from out of state and entered into the typical "be cautious" frame of mind once you said hike+Kelso.

That's a fair question on arsenic etc. So far as I know, however, there is no real compilation of data for arsenic concentrations in smaller waterways (could be wrong here, but I've never seen one). Myself, I generally am careful around areas that have been mined heavy and prefer sources that are snowmelt based (if available) but this is not necessarily skirting arsenic, admittedly.
As for actually coming in via Grizzly- here's a TR that comes in from there (it's a long read... a shitshow as well) with some pics etc. http://www.14ers.com/php14ers/tripreport.php?trip=10029&parmuser=born215&cpgm=tripmain&ski=Include

I was planning on climbing it this coming week, so if I am able to and am able to via Grizzly, I will. We'll see how the road is, as though Steven's isn't bad, Grizzly might be a bit worse this time of year. I'll get back to you next week, perhaps Sunday about what it's like. Obviously the conditions will not be snow covered when you do it, but at least it's something. I have a feeling you'll have lots of talus/scree though, since our snowpack was light and snowclimbs are in season a good bit early. As I said, coming from Steven's is much easier (you will have less vertical to gain and the trail is easy going up to the split). You have a bit of rock to deal with, but I don't think it'd be as much. You might consider camping at grizzly and starting from Steven's. It's not my personal stomping ground so I can't say for sure, but I'd venture to guess that there is more camping traffic at Steven's and/or early arrivals for climbs because it's the standard/easy route trailhead.