My habit of hiking obscure mountains in Chaffee County and my zeal for the New York Yankees crashed together on Saturday morning. The Yankees, who are battling the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series, need some good Rocky Mountain vibes. And so this morning I climbed an unnamed mountain east of Nathrop, Colorado, and affectionately named it "Yankees Mountain." :)

This unnamed peak is located directly east of Nathrop, and SEE of Ruby Mountain by a few tenths of a mile at most. This ridge-like mountain can be viewed on the Salida, St. Elmo, Mt. Shavano topographical map provided by National Geographic: Buy it online here if you need it.

There was no trail. I doubt I will ever ascend this peak again, because honestly, there are so many more interesting small peaks to hike. At the very least though, you folks in far away places like Denver, Florida or Germany can enjoy some Colorado mountain scenery from the photos I captured on the excursion. ;)

How To Get There: In Nathrop, I traveled east to the trailer park situated beside the Arkansas River. At the main parking area, I walked across the river footbridge and scrambled up the pinion covered hill to "Yankees Mountain." The top three photos in this photo gallery precisely show the peak I ascended.

-Steve

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"Yankees Mountain" (Altitude 8,424 Feet) - Nathrop, Colorado Pulled over on Highway 285 a short distance north of Nathrop, above is the view of Sugarloaf Mountain, "Yankees Mountain" and Ruby Mountain.

In the village of Nathrop (east of Highway 285), "Yankees Mountain" is very noticable on the right.

At the entrance to the trailer park, one can view the ridge leading to the summit of "Yankees Mountain." The entire route I took can be seen right there.

	The Hike After a short but steep scramble up rocky and pinion covered terrain east of the Arkansas River, the mountain's "false summit" comes into view.
	The views to the east continued to catch my attention. I have been fairly out of shape recently and rested frequently ... there was no reason to hurry with views like these. FIRST: Mt. Shavano, Mt. White and Mt. Antero among those large mountains with Nathrop in the foreground. SECOND: A nearly perfectly composed photo of Mt. Princeton.
	FIRST: Up I climbed this rocky ridge looking at a "false summit." The actual summit is another short distance beyond. SECOND: The snow made the hike more challenging for sure.
	I stopped to take in this view. Mt. Yale (left) and Mt. Columbia (right) are the towering snowy peaks in the background. Ruby Mountain (left) and Sugarloaf Mountain (right) stand in the foreground.
	Photo taken while standing on the false summit. I scrambled among rocks and twisted and contorted myself to avoid tree branches to reach the summit in view in this adjacent photo.
	On The Summit I placed my Yankees blanket on this rock and hereby declare this Yankees Mountain. (Altitude approximately 8,424 feet) Go Yankees! My only Yankees page on this site was my visit to Old Yankees Stadium in 2008.
	Two photos looking west toward the Collegiate Peaks. The photo on the left made it as the Mt. Princeton photo of the day on www.MtPrinceton.org. :)
	Another grand view of Nathrop and the mountains.
	Facing south toward Salida with the Sangre De Cristo Mountains in the background.
	The northeasterly view that includes Bald Mountain (alt. 9,611 feet).
	One token photo of myself. It was nice to get out! Are you a fan of my web site? Come join ... ColoradoGuy.com on Facebook