Sep 25 2023
Lead Mountain Lead Mountain is a rugged 12,544-foot (3,823-meter) summit in the Never Summer Mountains of north-central Colorado. Rising directly along the Continental Divide, the mountain straddles the boundary between Grand County and Jackson County while also marking the western edge of Rocky Mountain National Park. Although it is overshadowed by higher nearby summits such …
Sep 25 2023
Chiefs Head Peak Chiefs Head Peak is a rugged 13,577-foot (4,138-meter) mountain in Colorado’s Front Range, rising above Glacier Gorge in Rocky Mountain National Park. Although it stands only a short distance southwest of the much more famous Longs Peak, Chiefs Head is a very different mountain experience. There is no maintained trail to its …
Sep 25 2023
Redcloud Peak Redcloud Peak is a 14,037-foot (4,279-meter) mountain in Colorado’s rugged San Juan Mountains. Rising southwest of Lake City in Hinsdale County, it is one of Colorado’s famous fourteeners and one of the more approachable high summits in a range better known for steep ridges, loose rock, and demanding climbing routes. The standard Northeast …
Sep 25 2023
Gladstone Peak Gladstone Peak is a rugged 13,923-foot (4,243-meter) summit in the San Miguel Mountains of southwestern Colorado. Rising between Mount Wilson and Wilson Peak inside the Lizard Head Wilderness, it forms part of one of the most spectacular concentrations of high, jagged peaks in the San Juan Mountains. Although Gladstone falls less than 100 …
Apr 08 2023
Trees, Wildflowers, & Lichens While the Rocky Mountains are known for their sharp spires and snowy crowns, it would be incorrect to say that the spirit of the place is only that: rocks, heights, and perspective. After all, anyone strolling along a mountain path is going to spend about half the time looking down, at …
Mar 12 2023
The North American Rocky mountains by begin as far south as mid-New Mexico, but their northernmost point is a full 3,000 miles away, nestled inside an ecosystem that looks absolutely nothing like its southern counterpart. This should serve as no surprise to anyone who is familiar with that great collection of mountains … a family …
Jan 31 2023
Anytime someone mentions the Rocky Mountains, it is hard to not become immediately inundated with visions of majestic mountain peaks, covered with snow, looming above the world at such heights that it would be inappropriate to compare them to anything but heaven. And yet, there is a stretch of the Southern Rocky Mountains that refuse …
Jan 05 2023
How Master Cartographer William Clark Set Out to Map the Rockies It was 1803 when President Thomas Jefferson and his like-minded band of enlightened souls embarked on a shared journey to the far reaches of the American Republic … a journey that was as spiritual as it was geographical, as bold as it was foolhardy. …
Feb 28 2022
It is nothing short of a tragedy to find just how little appreciation is given to the momentous feats of the souls who came before us, upon whose legs and backs our country came into its rightful greatness. The Lewis & Clark expedition of 1804 – 1806 is one such feat. In our world of …
Feb 28 2022
In the deep heart of the Rocky Mountains, just south of the alpine town of Leadville, a mountain known locally as the “Gentle Giant” overlooks snow-capped ranks of lesser peaks and hills. This is where she has lived for about thirty million years, and with any luck, the next thirty million years isn’t going to …
