We reached parking lot on Guanella Pass by 6 A.M, one of the parking lot was already full so we parked at the other lot with rest rooms. Beautiful Friday morning, forecast was to expect thunderstorms in the afternoon so we wanted to complete the trek by 11 A.M. It is our first 14er, three of us started at 6 A.M and completed within 5-6 hours depending on number of breaks and amount of time to enjoy beautiful weather and serenity on mountains. At the beginning of the trail, there is a creek, trust logs to cross the creek. There were no bugs in the morning but I noticed lot of bugs later in the morning so I suggest carrying bug spray!
I divide trek into three levels, first 2 miles pretty much well marked easy trail on the dirt (sometimes a bit of muddy) then next mile is the most challenging part of the trail then final ascend is very much unmarked and full of boulders. Although final ascend appears to be a tall order, but it is not as bad as it appears from a distant. You just need to use hands occasionally on boulders to maintain balance and keep moving forward. It only takes about 30 min reach the summit on these boulders. Once you reach summit, you forget everything and enjoy mother nature! As you can see in the photos, both parking lots of full and plenty of cars parked on both sides of Guanella Pass road. There were hundreds of folks on the trail, we met a few folks who had started around 2:30 A.M. I say that is a bit extreme unless you are trying for experience with night trek. I strongly suggest that you start trekking no later than 6:30 A.M to complete within 5-6 hours and avoid afternoon showers/thunderstorms!!!
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