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Page Type:
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Trip Report |
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Date Climbed/Hiked:
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Aug 1, 2008 |
Activities:
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Hiking |
Season:
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Summer |
Intro
Grays and Torreys are two 14ers in the Front Range that are relatively easy, close to Denver, and can both be done in a single day. This translates into one thing: CROWDS. I thought I had experienced crowded 14ers before until I hit these peaks. Wow! There was a constant stream of people on the entire route, and this was on a Friday! I can only imagine what weekends are like. I will probably never do these again, unless there are extreme winter conditions or something like that to thin out the crowds.Getting There
We headed out from Boulder on a Thursday night, with plans to camp near the Grays Peak trailhead.Take I-70 to Bakerville, exit 221 and turn left. Cross over I-70 and begin FR 189. The road is a bit nasty in spots, so 4WD is recommended. But we saw a few vehicles that were definitely not 4WD and made it ok (one was a VW Beetle). It's about 3 miles to the trailhead.
After getting to the trailhead and seeing that there were virtually no campsites left, we headed back down the road and camped near one of the pull-outs, next to a river. It turned out to be a great decision, as the river drowned out any notion of crowds.
Ascent
We woke up at about 7am, packed up, and headed towards the trailhead. I saw over 10 cars pass by during the time that we were packing up camp. WTFWe got to the trailhead at 7:45 or so and it looked like a freaking shopping mall parking lot. Here are some pics of the cars.
We began hiking up the trail at about 8:15am. While we were getting geared up, we saw a truck pull up and about 15 high school kids got out of the back. Most of them were wearing cotton t-shirts and shorts or jeans (some really baggy). Very few had any food, water, or any gear whatsoever. It seemed like it was some sort of team-building activity, which is a great idea in itself. But whomever sponsored the event and brought these kids out there so ill-prepared should be ashamed. Later in the hike, we saw several of them passed out from exhaustion, turning back, or shivering from the cold. On top of Grays, I overheard one of the kids saying he was really hungry, so I offered a couple of Odwalla bars. Anyway, it just sucks to see people blindly throwing themselves into outings like this with no preparation. I guess some people feel the need to learn lessons the hard way.
Enough ranting! On with the pics. Not too much to say... The trail is extremely well-traveled and almost impossible to lose. It's an easy class 1 hike up Grays, with lots of switchbacking near the top.
The route up Torreys was a bit steeper, and perhaps class 2. But it was still very manageable, and it doesn't take much longer (maybe 1 hour tops?) Also, there were quite a few people that didn't go for Torreys, so it was much less crowded. I'd definitely recommend it (weather permitting) if you're already up Grays. There's a sign on the Grays summit that points the way.
Descent
From Torrey's, you can head down to the Grays/Torreys saddle and then catch a direct trail back East that meets up with the main Grays Peak Trail.
That's about it. I think I'll start doing 13ers, or at least less common routes on 14ers. :-)