Handies Peak
The weekend of July 20th, 2020 I hiked Handies Peak, at 14,058ft above sea level.
On a stormy Sunday with my friends Zac and Melanie
Saturday before the hike I spent some time getting my gear together. I ended up taking my sweet time on the drive down.
I took Colorado 133 South from Carbondale to Hotchkiss. Then headed down Colorado 29 to Blue Mesa Reservoir from there I took a dirt “short cut” through some grazing area down County Road 26. Then turned down Colorado 149 to Lake City. The campsite was about thirty - forty minutes past Lake City down a dirt road. I finally reached the Grizzly Gulch Trail head where my friends were waiting for me.
Photo: The backside of the coal furnaces in Redstone with Chair Mountain framed in the background
Photo Above: A Coal Furnace in Redstone, one of many kept in various states of repair. Some pristine others in ruins, this one was kind of in the middle.
Photo Left: A water fall tucked into a tight little crack in the wall around a corner right of the road.
Photo Above: A monolith that caught my eye South of Hotchkiss.
Photo Left: A pair of shoes by the hidden falls, above.
Photo Above: a tighter shot of the monolith.
I love Pronghorns, I caught this guy and his couple ladies grazing around on Country Road 24. Apparently their closest relative is the giraffe.
I had recently gotten a new lens for wildlife which proved super useful right then. It is a Sigma 150 - 600mm Sport lens, which a super heavy but the images I get have been great!
There was even a little youngster!
Milky Way over Grizzly Creek with a storm rolling in.
I didn’t get to the campsite until late. Google told me that the drive would take about 5 hours but I’m pretty easily distracted. See above. Once I had set up my tent and had a chance to relax a bit, I set my tripod up to do a bit of astro photography. After a couple of tries and the clouds moving in pretty quick I figured I was wasting my time. I did get this so maybe it was worth it.
We couldn’t stay up to late anyway after all. I wanted to start super early to get a picture of sunrise fro the lake on the trail.
The two people headed up the path behind us. Their head lamps lighting the way before dawn.
Zac and Melanie while we take a short rest.
The light had been gradually improving dawn started to break. Naturally, I started to rush up to the lake. After all I couldn’t miss sunrise.
Zac and Melanie headed up the trail after I raced ahead to take this shot.
I did make it to Sunrise over at the lake but I wasn’t quite set up when I took this really quick in case the I lose the light. Which kind of happened.
This is what I took after I finished setting up and bossing my nice friends around to get a bit of scale for the mountains. You can see them if you look hard enough. I ended up taking about 4 exposures of this panorama. Unfortunately, my computer ended up not having enough power to process all the versions at the same time. So hopefully I’ll be able to make the HDR panorama that I was palling when I was sitting by the lake side.
We finally made it up to the Summit
On the way we got hit with a bit of rain and hail. but the storm broke a bit before I got to the summit. It ended up being a happy accident that all three of us had Patagonia rain jackets. It’s pretty typical for there to be quite a few people up there, at least considering the remote nature of a 14,058ft peak.
The toughest little chihuahuas pulling their dad up to the top
Meredith from Boulder
Zac and Melanie exploring the summit
A Father and Son at the peak
Meredith laughing up top
A rock cairn on the trail an the way back down from the top
I took this panorama up at the top, for some reason I didn’t think to include Uncompahgre or Wetterhorn Peaks in my photo.
A little Pika that got pretty comfortable with me after I first noticed him and kept still for a bit.
I was surprised to see fish in the lake up that high. I learned later that the Forest Service stocks them. I was also surprised they were so red.
This guy was very proud of himself and made sure everyone in the valley knew he was there.
That same little Pika again striking a pose for me.
I love the shapes and shadows that light creates in the mountains, especially without the trees the lines are so sharp.
Wild flowers that I had walked right past in the dark on the way up.