Group of 2 planning on tackling these two mountains the end of this month. But we totally plan on taking our sweet time and making it a 3 night/4 day type of trip. We DO NOT want to come back to the truck in the middle or between mountains.

Secondly, and this may sound dumb, we'd rather take the more isolated less-popular routes. We know these are popular choices for climbs, especially this time of year. So parking in the lot and going up the main marked trail is probably a dumb move for someone not wanting to run into other people every 20 minutes.

I have heard of people attacking Massive from the Fish Hatchery area? How close to the Hatchery are we talking/where do you park? But parking in that area, doing Massive, then doing Elbert would leave us WAY WAY far from our truck home. Which..... might not be a huge deal. But would be a hellava boring flat long hike back.

Thoughts?

Do them as separate hikes. Since there is a road between them, it doesn't make sense to do them as a loop without returning to the truck.

The Fish Hatchery route is a good winter route. Scenery wise, I don't know if it makes as much sense in summer.

If you want solitude, climb Elbert from Black Cloud Creek or Mount Massive from Native Lake. Those two routes probably offer the best chance of solitude on either mountain.

Thanks for the reply. I hear and understand. But I don't live in Colorado, so I kinda get one shot at this.