Meandering around Square Top Mountain

After a disappointing January, it was time to get out and start off February the right way. Weather in Colorado had been warm the past week with little new snow. This was good since I was kinda hoping I could avoid snowshoes. So I set out for the Square Top Mountain area with modest objectives and a positive frame of mind.

The last time I came up Guanella Pass, I took the trail headed out West to see if I could make Silver Dollar Lake. This time I planned on hiking up the road to Guanella Pass. To keep things simple (and achievable), I’d have been happy just to make the pass if the snow was deep. Things went much better than my low expectations.

Parking Lot/Trailhead on Guanella Pass Road

The trip up to the parking area off Guanella Pass Road near Naylor Lakes road was easy. There wasn’t any traffic-disrupting construction on I-70 so it was only about 60-75 minutes to get to the parking area coming in from the North. The weather was very nice when I arrived with a temp of about 27 at 8:00AM.

The road past the parking lot, which is closed to vehicles in the winter, was well-packed. I strapped the snowshoes and ice axe on my backpack, kept the microspikes in the pack, and headed out on hiking boots. It was so nice to be doing “regular” hiking and making good time again!

Initial Section – Hike up to Guanella Pass

The road has obviously been well-traveled by others since the last snow. No complaints, it was good to be feeling like I was able to hike versus slogging through the snow on snowshoes. As I rounded the first bend, I had a good view of the moon above the trees.

The hike up to Guanella Pass is only about 1.5 miles from the parking lot with a modest 500-600 feet of elevation change, no huffing and puffing required. 🙂 The only bad experience on this section was the fair amount of dog poop. I sure wish owners would pick up after their dogs. OK, enough animal poop talk…until later.

Guanella Pass

Rounding the bend to Guanella Pass opened up amazing views of Mt. Bierstadt, Mt. Evans, Square Top Mountain, and the South Clear Creek valley. There were some interesting cloud formations giving pictures of the views good character and composition, so of course I snapped a few.

I stayed on the road until the trail to Square Lakes. Clearly my “lowest expectation” goal of just getting to Guanella Pass wasn’t that hard. The trail was relatively clear of snow so I continued without microspikes or snowshoes. At this point, I stuck with my plan to go to Square Top Lakes just below Square Top Mountain.

Occasionally the trail would get into an area of willows. These are always great opportunities to sink in waist-deep and post-hole along. For the most part, however, I was able to find a path around them on solid snow. The warm days had allowed a crust to form on snow that supported me…most of the time.

At 2.8 miles, the trail crossed a small gully filled with willows and snow that wouldn’t support me. The day was so nice, I thought I’d bypass the willow mess completely and see if I could go up to the summit of Square Top Mountain. There was a relatively clear path to get to the eastern ridge line approach to Square Top Mountain. So off I went!

Heading up to Square Top Mountain

Hiking this section wasn’t too bad. There were some snowfields where a slip would provide a thrill-seeking slide down the mountain. I avoided crossing these snow/ice fields by finding areas where the grass was popping through. Luckily, no slipping happened. See Mom, no need to worry.

Hiking was relatively easy once I made the initial climb to the ridge line. There wasn’t much snow or ice on the ridge itself. I stopped to have some water, snacks, and enjoy the views a bit more.

Square Top Mountain Summit?

At 4 miles, I crossed the top of the ridge line where the trail opens up to an flat saddle. From here, the trail heads up to the top of Square Top Mountain. The wind was pretty strong here, like it is on most saddles. The eastern ridge leading up to the summit had some snow cover in the steeper section going up to the top. It really didn’t look too bad and I had my ice axe and microspikes. Despite this, I decided to pass on summiting. Maybe I’m getting old.

Meandering around

I headed down from the saddle towards the lakes. If I’d thought of it, I could have crossed over and gone up the south-eastern approach to Square Top Mountain. Instead, I headed down for a bit, and then back east towards the lower lake.

Shortly after heading east I came across a gully that was filled with snow. Too lazy to put on my microspikes, I headed back up to the top of the saddle to return the way I came. I suspect climbing back up a few hundred feet was more effort than putting on microspikes.

Some snowshoeing on the way back

There were a few blog-worthy events on the way back. The first was that I came across some “poop bowls”. These were scooped out bowls with animal skat in them. I looked it up later and it turns out it was ptarmigan skat. I wish I’d known to be on the lookout for them as I love seeing ptarmigan. They are one of my favorite animals but are hard to spot due to their camouflage. I did take a picture of the skat but didn’t post it. 🙂

The other item was getting the joy of snowshoeing through some willows. There were willows with deep, soft snow as I approached the Guanella Pass Road. After post-holing a few times, I put on the snowshoes. Within a few hundred yards, I realized how much harder snowshoeing in soft snow is than hiking! I wasn’t sorry that was the only time they were on my feet on this hike.

Overall it was a great day to be out in the mountains, and I feel like I got a bit of my old self back after a disappointing January.