Pikes Peak from Crags CG TH • Hike • Colorado • All Triplogs • HikeArizona.COM

Guides 4
Routes 27
Photos 4,621
Triplogs 975

56 male

Joined Aug 23 2005
Pike National Fo

South Central, CO

Hiking		Sep 28 2022
		sneakySASQUATCH • Triplogs 975

Hiking	13.80 Miles	4,535 AEG

Hiking	13.80 Miles
	4,535 ft AEG

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Wasn’t sure how this would go. Haven’t been hiking A lot mostly running with decent amount of hills. But, I wasn’t allowed to excercise from April to the beginning of July because of retinal tears. I Think the weight I lost earlier in the year had made it easier. It took me 2:27 to summit and 1:56 to go down which I believe is the fastest I’ve done it from the Crags. I did spend a good hour up top looking at a completely foreign summit from all the other times up. Trail is in decent shape and weather was nice. Not much wind sunny and 30’s at the top. Cloudy so there was reasonable amount of shade. Figured I probably should do at least one 14er. This year and late season = hardly anybody summiting. I was out of commission recovering for a good part of the summer and it’s nice to get out!

Autumn Foliage Observation Isolated
Good color along the road poor showing this year in our area.

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3 archives

Jul 17 2020

DixieFlyer

Guides 99
Routes 1,485
Photos 16,072
Triplogs 1,375

male

Joined Jan 07 2017
Fountain Hills,

South Central, CO

Hiking		Jul 17 2020
		DixieFlyer • Triplogs 1,375

Hiking	14.60 Miles	4,459 AEG

Hiking	14.60 Miles	8 Hrs 28 Mns	2.10 mph
	4,459 ft AEG	1 Hour 30 Mns Break

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The Crags Trail #644

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On the second day of hiking in CO, I decided to hike up to Pike's Peak. I started and ended the hike at the Crag's TH, which is at about 10,000 feet in elevation. The last 3.5 miles or so to the TH is on a well-graded unpaved road that most any car could drive on (at least on the day that I did the hike).

You start off going uphill right off the bat, so there is no warmup on this one. The grade for the first couple of miles is not too steep though. After 2 miles, the trail steepens quite a bit for about 1.4 miles -- you gain about 1,700 feet in elevation during that stretch. It gets really steep for about the last half mile of this segment once above the treeline -- you climb about 700 feet over that 1/2 mile; in addition to the steepness of this section of trail, the terrain is pretty tough: lots of rock and small boulders to negotiate. Once past this section, you are on a ridgeline at about 12,700 feet, and for about the next 2.5 miles you are hiking in an alpine meadow that only gains about 400 feet in elevation. The views are nice, but you do cross a paved road that goes up to the top of Pikes Peak, and the trail parallels the road for a while. The views are still nice, but the wilderness feel of the hike is gone by that point.

The trail steepens over the last mile to the summit as you gain about 1,000 feet in elevation. The last half mile is basically rock hopping across a boulder field. At the summit, there are buildings, cars, construction cranes, and a fair number of people; so the summit was anti-climatic for me. I thought that the journey was nice, the destination not so much.

On the way back I came across 15-20 bighorn sheep about 700 feet below the summit, and it was cool seeing them. Hat tip to @tibber for the identification!

Fauna

Fauna [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Bighorn Sheep Marmot (Yellow-Bellied)

Geology

Geology [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Pike's Peak Granite

Culture

Culture [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] HAZ - Hike HAZard

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

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Civilization is a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there

2 archives

Jun 30 2020

Guides 4
Routes 27
Photos 4,621
Triplogs 975

56 male

Joined Aug 23 2005
Pike National Fo

South Central, CO

Hiking		Jun 30 2020
		sneakySASQUATCH • Triplogs 975

Hiking	13.80 Miles	4,535 AEG

Hiking	13.80 Miles	4 Hrs 12 Mns	3.29 mph
	4,535 ft AEG

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Decided last night since one kid in daycare and one going to camp I would do Pikes Peak from the other side (short cut). What a difference from last time. It was cold and windy with gusts over 40 all the way up. It even snowed on me. Saw a family of sheep climb up a cool rock formation. Lots of wildflowers everywhere. Parking for the top is at Devil’s Playground parking with shuttles to the top. Total CLUSTER PUMPKIN! I got to the top and there was line into building because of limitations on # of people. Lines waiting to get on shuttles to go back to their cars. I planned on this and had enough water for round trip. Besides the water at the top is almost undrinkably disgusting. Only made that mistake once. Jogged down got home with enough time to relax them make dinner for the family. Since my wife worked while I played.

Flora

Flora [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] King's Crown Sky pilot Unidentified Flora

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Oct 28 2016

Guides 4
Routes 27
Photos 4,621
Triplogs 975

56 male

Joined Aug 23 2005
Pike National Fo

South Central, CO

Hiking		Oct 28 2016
		sneakySASQUATCH • Triplogs 975

Hiking	13.80 Miles	4,535 AEG

Hiking	13.80 Miles
	4,535 ft AEG

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Forecast was different than observations packed a few extra cold weather things and needed them all. Shorts tshirt below the treeline gloves, puffy vest and hat above the ridgeline. Not sure if it's a new fire or one previously burning but smoke started making a cloud to the south. Planned and hope weather permitting I'll be able to do this from sentinel point next week, but time constraints necessitated the Crags today. Kids can't miss boo at the zoo!

A lot of trail work has been done this summer since I did the Pumkin loop. Below the ridge line is much better and less slippery. Some areas they repaired and some areas had to be rerouted. Not many people or traffic this late in the season.

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Sep 03 2015

BobP

Guides 2
Routes 251
Photos 4,593
Triplogs 3,212

63 male

Joined Feb 26 2008
Scottsdale, AZ

South Central, CO

Hiking		Sep 03 2015
		BobP • Triplogs 3,212

Hiking	14.90 Miles	4,585 AEG

Hiking	14.90 Miles	5 Hrs 41 Mns	2.66 mph
	4,585 ft AEG	5 Mns Break

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fricknaley

This one was better than expected. I dillydallied the whole way up probably 45 minutes over a decent pace. The first 2.5 hrs I think I had less than 2k aeg. Frick was way ahead of me and I jogged parts up top to close the gap(because storms were brewing). We cruised down to treeline and then took our time the last few miles. We got a little damp but not too bad. Good day for wildlife sightings. I enjoyed the slow pace up and only saw a few other people on trail. I was pleasantly surprised by this one. No headaches or sickness today :y:

I felt like I was being stalked early on and kept hearing weird noises. :scared:

Fauna

Fauna [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Bighorn Sheep Marmot (Yellow-Bellied)

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

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https://www.seeitourway.org
Always pronounce Egeszsegedre properly......
If you like this triplog you must be a friend of BrunoP

Sep 03 2015

fricknaley

Guides 93
Routes 397
Photos 4,984
Triplogs 4,124

49 male

Joined Jun 20 2003
Tucson, AZ

South Central, CO

Hiking		Sep 03 2015
		fricknaley • Triplogs 4,124

Hiking	13.73 Miles	4,097 AEG

Hiking	13.73 Miles	5 Hrs 41 Mns		2.49 mph
	4,097 ft AEG	10 Mns Break	8 LBS Pack

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wasn't sure what to expect from this one but turned out to be really cool hike and a great route. we switched this hike into a more iffy weather day to ensure better weather on Longs so we were racing storms a lot of the time but it only lightly rained on us for a while on the way down. couldn't spend too much time on the summit because that's where we encountered the worst weather.

big open views above timber line and the area around devils playground was really cool

after the rain on the way down it cleared up and was beautiful.

glad MtnBart01 put this alternate route on HAZ, very cool :app:

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

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hi

1 archive

Aug 06 2015

Guides 4
Routes 27
Photos 4,621
Triplogs 975

56 male

Joined Aug 23 2005
Pike National Fo

PikesPeak Pumpkin loop, CO

Hiking		Aug 06 2015
		sneakySASQUATCH • Triplogs 975

Hiking	39.99 Miles	10,091 AEG

Hiking	39.99 Miles
	10,091 ft AEG

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Barr Trail #620

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I don't need no stinking shuttle Part III

I seem to need some crazy goal to keep me motivated. I hiked the Superstition Ridgeline as a loop and the Superstition Ridgeline x2 the next year. So I had this idea that I wanted to do a big loop to Pikes Peak from my house.

I have had the route for a couple years and my whole crazy hiking month for me in April was to hike this in May. Unfortunately, our large amount of snow in April and May made this impossible. A lot has happened since April. Contract change and job location change. Of course the birth of our second child. Training and schedule change to name a few along with an extremely active monsoon season.

So Yesterday was the day. :y:

I was hoping the route would be straightforward and used by others to do a loop that would allow others to see both sides of Pikes Peak in one shot. However, I would recommend setting up a shuttle (yep you heard it from I don't need no shuttle right) and doing Barr or Crags up and going down the other trail. Both sides have their Pros and Cons, but are worth doing. The mileage would be half of what I did yesterday.

Having said that my route was great and I enjoyed the hike until leaving Barr Camp for home. I tried to leave my route and bushwack straight to Crowe Gulch, but the forest is impassable so I had to follow my route. By the time I got to Oil Creek tunnel I had no motivation to go the 1/4 mile round trip to see it. I didn't take into account the high amount of precipitation this which forced me to wade through a marsh of knee deep mud which was dry when I used this route previously. At this point I was too tired to take my original route out with the extra miles and decided to follow the creek that the marsh dumps into. This was extremely difficult and unfortunately in my exhaustion looked at the topo lines wrong thinking it was a mild descent rather than an extremely steep canyon. After getting out of the canyon. I did have my first Moose sighting and filtered water as I had run out by this time. I bailed on my non preferred route which was rough, but doable and took the shortest back to connect my loop. I limped up Crowe Gulch and down Mt. Esther to complete the loop. In general I feel pretty good today and may do a little hike today just to loosen up the sore muscles. The wet mud to my knees and wet shoes for the last 8 miles made the pads of my feet a little tender, but they feel much better today.

So the only thing left for a hike like this is Ring the Peak for my area. Maybe that will be my next I don't need no stinking shuttle. 62-65 miles and 11000-13000 AEG. I'm going to need to get in better shape. I will probably try to Mountain Bike it first to make sure I don't have any surprises like this hike.

I think I'll probably start picking off 14er's at this point because after yesterday I think most will seem easier than they would have before this hike.

A few notes:
Crags has more up and back hikers you see the same people coming up and back. The scenery is much nicer except for walking along the toll road for a period of time. The Barr trail is out of reach for a day hike for many. In quizzing people on the way down yesterday and doing it as day hike 99% either hike it one way and get a ride down or stay at barr camp overnight and hike it from Barr Camp and back and either finish it or stay another night at Barr Camp and go down. It has interesting geology and views of the Springs. It is rougher, longer, and significantly more elevation gain than the Crags.

Flora

Flora [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Avens

Culture

Culture [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Mining Equipment

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

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1 archive

Jul 13 2015

Guides 4
Routes 27
Photos 4,621
Triplogs 975

56 male

Joined Aug 23 2005
Pike National Fo

South Central, CO

Hiking		Jul 13 2015
		sneakySASQUATCH • Triplogs 975

Hiking	14.28 Miles	4,723 AEG

Hiking	14.28 Miles	5 Hrs 17 Mns		2.70 mph
	4,723 ft AEG		15 LBS Pack

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Used Haz tracks on iPhone 5 and surprisingly AEG and miles higher than my Garmin last time I hiked it, but pretty close. I also used it in airplane mode and was at 80% at the top. Plugged it into back up battery for about 20 minutes and had 69% at the trailhead. I didn't load offline track and after 20 minutes with it not loading at the top with crappy cell signal I gave up on trying to load topo to track on the way down.
Forecast was for t-storms as usual. Last forecast in the morning said mostly after 3pm. Nice temps on the hike up. Passed 8 groups along the way. At the summit came out after taking a break and stuff was rapidly coming in a little earlier than the forecast 3 pm. Headed out and decided to eat pb&j on the way down. Passed a couple of the groups I passed on the way up that either decided to turn around or turned around at the machine shed. By Devil's Playground I could hear pretty good thunder in the distance and it started to hail on me for about 45 minutes. The summit of Pikes Peak was receiving heavy rain and hail. I came across a couple groups in The playground that wisely turned around and later on the ridge a couple of over packed bearded gentleman with camouflage pack covers and dressed head to toe camouflage heading to the ridge just before the storm moved into that area. It cleared up for a few minutes in the crags area entering into the treeline then intermittent hail and rain all the way to the trailhead. I haven't hiked this in awhile, but I really enjoy the views toward the continental divide. Everything is much greener with the high snowpack earlier in the year and the high rainfall totals for the area. Most rocky areas had a thick green carpet and lots of flowers instead of desolate dirt between the boulders compared to last time. I'm not sure why I don't do this one more often, but it won't be the last time. It's definitely worthy of multiple visits. Especially when it's 20 minutes from home.

Flora

Flora [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] King's Crown Mountain Heather

Named place

Named place [ checklist ]

Wildflowers Observation Moderate

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2 archives

Oct 07 2013

Guides 4
Routes 27
Photos 4,621
Triplogs 975

56 male

Joined Aug 23 2005
Pike National Fo

[ checklist ] Cactuscat Pose Informational/Interpretive Sign

South Central, CO

Hiking		Oct 07 2013
		sneakySASQUATCH • Triplogs 975

Hiking	13.92 Miles	4,642 AEG

Hiking	13.92 Miles
	4,642 ft AEG

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Muesli's first 14'er :y:

Perfect day for a hike. 30's when I left the house 40's on top. Forecast for the only other two days I had available were 20-30knot winds. 5-10 today and a beautifully clear day. Got to the trail head around 7 ish. Another car pulled up 10 min. after. I passed them up and had the mountain to myself until running into them at the boulder field on the way down. I took about an hour break on top so I was a couple hours ahead of them. I ran into 3 Phoenicians at the Devil's Playground told them to look up HAZ as somehow they had never heard of the site. :-k

I found this out when I told them they pretty much only had a Flatiron at 13000' feet to go.

Anyway, ran into one more person and his dog below the saddle. If they summited they were riding the railway or hiking down in the dark. Views were spectacular! I could do w/out the part of the trail that follows the road as others have mentioned, but early on a weekday you can beat the traffic up the hill. I saw cars on the way down, but only 3 going up. Barr trail really only has views toward the east and Colorado Springs where this hike you get the East and Western views. With it only being 20 min. from the house I expect to probably do this hike a couple times a year. This is probably my favorite hike so far this year. The fall colors were nice on the way out. Muesli had no problems and the trail is generally pretty good although rough in some places. The boulder field might be the hardest part for dogs especially bigger dogs. Of course he lives at 7600' so acclimatization might be something to consider especially if visiting on vacation. I felt a lot better on top than when I did the Barr Trail especially since I just got back from Sea Level 3 days ago. Maybe less exertion or more time living at altitude. Who knows, but it was just about a perfect day. :y:

Culture

Culture [ checklist ]

Meteorology

Meteorology [ checklist ]

[ checklist ] Lightning

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Jul 31 2012

juliachaos

Routes 37
Photos 2,160
Triplogs 627

43 female

Joined Mar 01 2010
Phoenix, AZ

South Central, CO

Hiking		Jul 31 2012
		juliachaos • Triplogs 627

Hiking	13.25 Miles	4,300 AEG

Hiking	13.25 Miles
	4,300 ft AEG

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We camped out the night before in our respective cars, with a most impressive storm raging directly above. I was pretty apprehensive, but knew that the storm would likely run itself out before we ever awoke for the trail. Thankfully, this was correct, and we got on the trail sometime around 4:30am. We hiked in the dark for a little while, and then the light began to appear and revealed misting clouds all around us. I crossed my fingers for a clear summit and kept moving. As we popped up above and onto the ridge, the clouds lifted... and revealed our first view of the road.

We all kept going, but it's sort of frustrating having the constant noise of the roads and people in your ears, and the exhaust in your nose... cough cough.

At the top, we looked around for signs of a benchmark but found none. The rest of our stay up top was uneventful and a little frustrating (see Jim's triplog; I think he does a good job of explaining it). We eventually left and hiked down thru skies that were mostly clear, with small developing clouds. By the time we got back to the bottom, it seemed as though it would storm again. We had some beers with a new hiking friend we made on the mountain (Avery Ellie's Brown Ale). He makes a point to bring a different can of craft beer on every 14er hike. Excellent idea, and I may have to steal it!

...aaaand this completes my list of Front Range 14ers!

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Jul 28 2008

Jim

Guides 73
Routes 176
Photos 10,174
Triplogs 2,324

46 male

Joined Sep 08 2006