Weminuche Wilderness - Deep into the Colorado Backcountry

All aboard!  It was an early morning boarding onto the historic Durango-Silverton steam engine train for our trip to the Elk Park trailhead at the western edge of the Weminuche Wilderness, north of Durango, Colorado. Our plan was to hike from Elk Park to the Needleton trail head via the Chicago Basin.

The train trip afforded us fantastic views and good pictures of not only the scenery but also of the steam engine as it rounded bends, blowing its whistle, and spewing black smoke from the coal fire.

A dozen or so of us backpackers got off after three hours of travel. After gearing up, we started our hike at 12 noon.  A slow steady climb got us to mile 5 at 3:30 p.m. and a nice campsite with logs to sit on, water access nearby, and a fire ring made by previous hikers.  We had a late afternoon cocktail at creek side while watching the setting sun.  There had been reports of bears, so we were diligent in finding a good tree from which to hang our food.

An overcast sky greeted us upon awakening.  It would stay that way for the rest of the day.  Soon after leaving camp the trail started to climb, very steeply in places.  We were at 10,000 feet and the climb along with our heavy packs wore us out.

Above tree line the views made themselves known.  What little sun there was helped dapple the valley and the distant mountains with shadow and light. 

Switchback after switchback took us up and over the Continental Divide.  We lingered briefly to soak in the scenery at 12,500 feet.  On our descent we came up on an older gentleman who was solo hiking the Colorado Trial.  This 500 mile trail starts in Denver and ends in Durango. He didn’t have too much further to go.  He was going to arrive in Durango in time for his 50^th grade school class reunion.  “500 miles in 50 days for the 50^th reunion” were his parting words to us as he continued on his quest.

We headed down into Bear Creek Valley with wide open vistas all above tree line.  If the clouds clear, the full moon will illuminate our tent walls as if it were daylight.  But, soon after we found a suitable place to set up camp, the skies opened up.  We hunkered down underneath our rain ponchos as first rain, and then stinging pea sized hail pelted us for a good 10 – 15 minutes.  The rain eventually let up allowing us to take sponge baths and to wash some of our clothes.  The rest of the afternoon was spent reading our books and writing in my journal.

It rained in buckets overnight with howling winds as well.  Even though we were on an exposed site, our little tent held up very well.  There was not a drop of water inside.  The storm eventually passed allowing us to wake up to clear skies, 35 degree temperatures (some frost on the ground) with the sun rising in the east and the moon setting in the west, all within a setting of mountains and infinite views.  Simply fantastic!

Our hike up to Hunchback Pass was relatively easy, at least compared to the hike up the Continental Divide Pass the previous day.  There was still a lot of huffing and puffing but we were getting acclimated so the day’s climb wasn’t as bad. 

A long trek downhill greeted us after reaching the pass.  We came across several groups of like minded hikers.  One couple was hiking with llamas which carried their gear.  Now that’s my kind of hiking!  Several that we spoke with said that our hike up Johnson Creek to Columbine Pass tomorrow would be a tough one.  We are nervous about it but, we thought, it couldn’t be tougher than the one we did the other day up to the Continental Divide.  We’ll see.  After a long tiring 13 miles, we found a nice camp site at the Johnson Creek Crossing.  A nice fire along with a couple of cocktails ended our day.

We awoke wishing each other a happy Labor Day.  And what a day of labor it turned out to be!  We left camp at 8:00 a.m., our usual departure time.  At first we agreed we would stop short of the Columbine Pass and camp in the meadow at the day’s five mile marker.  We were feeling strong when we reached that point so we decided we would push on to Columbine Lake, right below the pass, at the 8 mile mark. 

The lake was in a setting of magnificent desolation.  No trees or shrubs whatsoever.  There were majestic mountains surrounding the scene on all four sides.  While there were no restrictions to camp here, the area looked environmentally fragile, with no cover at all. Still feeling strong, we decided we would not camp here and instead push on, up to the pass that loomed high above us. 

At the top, the views were stupendous, some of the best mountain scenery we have ever witnessed.  We lingered only shortly however as there was a very strong cold wind buffeting us and trying to push us off the edge.  Spotty rain and sleet also lead to our haste. A slippery and perilously thin trail took us down into the Chicago Basin where we would hunt for a place to camp,

Pure white mountain goats are the featured wildlife of the Basin. From our valley vantage point, we could see their moving spots of white high up on the mountain sides. They also filled the Basin itself. There were about a dozen of them were milling around what was otherwise a nice camp site, posing for our cameras.  We wearily walked on toward another nice camp site, 10 miles and 9 hours after our early morning start. 

We were now one day ahead of schedule in our planned itinerary. We debated whether to stay tomorrow and have a lazy day in the Basin or head out and make our way to the train.  After much discussion, we decided to head out and find a nice comfortable bed and delicious food back in Durango.

With only six trail miles left and a 3:45 pick-up time at the train stop, we had the luxury of “sleeping in”.  We arose at 8:00 a.m. and left camp at 10:00 a.m.  Soon after departure, we were passed by three bow hunters, one having a 150 pound pure white, dead mountain goat strung across his shoulders.  Today was the first day of hunting season and they scored on their first try.  In their nearby camp, they were going to butcher it and then haul it out to the train the next day.

We arrived at the Needleton train stop at 1:45 p.m. with plenty of time to spare.  We read, wrote, smoked cigars, and chatted with other fellow hikers. The cold beer we bought on the train while heading back to Durango went down smooth and fast.  What was wonderful scenery on the ride up the other day was now routine for us, but still very enjoyable and a memorable way to access the trail system in the Weminuche Wilderness.  

A video our our journey is at the following link: