Mt. Belford
(Photos - My Hike To Mt. Belford Via The Missouri Gulch Trail) - August 14, 2007
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I began hiking at 6 a.m. at
the Missouri Gulch Trailhead across from Vicksburg and
I begin my pictorial with this
photo of Mt. Belford (alt. 14,197 feet) in the beautiful meadow near timberline.
Mt. Belford's peak is to the right. |
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Two photos on the way up, including the view looking back down
towards Missouri Gulch and a bunch of peaks (top) and getting close to Mt. Belford's summit (bottom). |
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At the top with Mt. Oxford behind. |
Photos At The Mt. Belford Summit
Okay, I snapped a bunch of photos at the Mt. Belford summit. In this section, I snapped photos by turning incrementally in clockwise fashion.
LEFT: Looking southeast. The trail in the foreground turns left at the point and heads
over to Mt. Oxford. Mt. Harvard,
the large peak on the right, stands tall and proud.
RIGHT: Facing more to the south, I captured the view of Mt. Princeton and Mt. Yale.
Mt. Shavano and Tabeguache Peak, if you are acquainted with their appearances from the north,
sit way out there faintly to the right of Mt. Yale. |
More views! The Pine Creek drainage area is on the left side
of each photo. Elkhorn Pass (and its trail) and Missouri Mountain can be seen in the right picture. |
Facing out to the north, I snapped a view of the trail coming up.
Click the photo above to see the three hikers to provide some depth! ;) |
Ahhhhhhh! I just kept taking picture after picture of there!
A couple of shots facing the north that include Clear Creek Canyon, La Plata Peak (left) and Mt. Elbert (right). |
LEFT: The upper Arkansas River Valley sits out there with the Mosquito Range (including Mt. Sherman) behind it.
RIGHT: The view of Mt. Oxford. I considered hiking down the saddle and back up to Mt. Oxford,
but my senses told me not to with the clouds that were slowly beginning to develop. |
One shot of me! I'm fairly sure I was the
first person to reach the summit today and I had the entire mountain to myself for about 15 minutes. :)
Here are my other 14er hikes:
Quandary Peak (2007)
Mt. Yale (2007 - Repeat)
Mt. Yale (2006)
Mt. Sherman (2004)
Mt. Princeton (2004)
Mt. Democrat - Lincoln - Bross (2004)
Pikes Peak (2002)
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Three Pictures Coming Down The Mountain
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Coming back down the trail, I just had to snap this photo.
Anytime I'm up a mountain like this, I'm struck by how different
the world looks - how far one can see, the clear blue skies
(most of the time) and how I'm looking down and out on everything! |
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I zoomed-in as best as I could on Emma Burr Mountain (see arrow),
a "13er" located on the Continental Divide between
Cottonwood Pass and Tincup Pass.
I have become obsessed with hiking that mountain!
Two pages related to Emma Burr Mountain I've created:
Drive in South Cottonwood Canyon
Hike: Turned Back Because Of Rain |
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I actually made a very good decision to not hike over to Mt.
Oxford, because as I was reaching timberline coming down, it became clear that those clouds were
not hiker friendly at all. In fact, as I approached the trailhead at 11:45 a.m., it began to rain really hard
with thunder, and to think that there were approximately 15 hikers I had passed 60-90 minutes
earlier who were still trudging up the mountain! Getting drenched by rain isn't so bad,
but the threat of lightning strikes can be pretty significant with all the exposure up there.
Lesson: Start early and watch for clouds! I began my hike at 6 a.m., which I considered
to be somewhat late of a start. I prefer to be on the trail no later than 5:30 a.m. for a hike like this. |
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