Planning Our First 14er(s): What do you recommend?

[cedica]

You can also do two 14ers from the camp around Winfield, Huron and La Plata via Southwest Ridge. Don't know how big crowds you should expect there for the 4th of July though.

[LarryM]

You can also do two 14ers from the camp around Winfield, Huron and La Plata via Southwest Ridge. Don't know how big crowds you should expect there for the 4th of July though.

Yeah, if you want to get two this is a good idea (though La Plata is a little tougher than Huron - though not out of the question by any means for first timers). Also note that even if Winfield itself is crowded for the holiday, there are tons of camping spots along the road between Vicksburg and Winfield. Again if my 4th of July 2015 experience is any guide you should have no problem finding something.

[Matt]

14ers have trails. Your experience already includes a peak without one.
LIttle Costilla's bushwhack would turn back many 14er "enthusiasts" looking for Instalikes. Don't sell yourselves short.
I certainly didn't enjoy getting above treeline there, but was stoked to be on the summit. It's an awesome peak!
It sounds like you took a different route than ours? We slept in an open field off a forest service road and started there. Backpacking wasn't an option.

However, altitude matters. 14ers during the 4th of July holiday are crowded. 14ers closer to Denver are even more crowded.
You may wish to consider something besides Kite Lake or Quandary.

Huron would seem a great choice, especially if you move your itinerary up a day or two.
There's a lot of dispersed camping in the area and the views en route to the summit smoke those in the Tenmile/Mosquito.
If you did want to backpack, Eli's suggestion makes sense.
Whatever you do, I hope it goes well!

[Wigniter]

14ers have trails. Your experience already includes a peak without one.
LIttle Costilla's bushwhack would turn back many 14er "enthusiasts" looking for Instalikes. Don't sell yourselves short.
I certainly didn't enjoy getting above treeline there, but was stoked to be on the summit. It's an awesome peak!
It sounds like you took a different route than ours? We slept in an open field off a forest service road and started there. Backpacking wasn't an option.

However, altitude matters. 14ers during the 4th of July holiday are crowded. 14ers closer to Denver are even more crowded.
You may wish to consider something besides Kite Lake or Quandary.

Huron would seem a great choice, especially if you move your itinerary up a day or two.
There's a lot of dispersed camping in the area and the views en route to the summit smoke those in the Tenmile/Mosquito.
If you did want to backpack, Eli's suggestion makes sense.
Whatever you do, I hope it goes well!

I'm sure there's a better (more high-tech) way to do this, but this is a pic of how I planned our summit route on Little Costilla.

Summit Routes.JPG

We backpacked in by following Middle Ponil Creek from where it crosses FR 1950, up the valley between Little Costilla and Ash Mountain about 2-3 miles until you reach a large, open area. We setup our base camp in some trees along the edges of the clearing, and took the red route up to the summit the next morning. We took the yellow route down. The first time I tried this summit, we took the light blue route, and only got about halfway before we spent all our energy bushwacking and going up some really crazy terrain. We made it to the second (of four) false peaks before a storm showed up to the west and forced us to hurry down.

Its an amazing area. Completely wild. You definitely get the sense that you are the visitor, because everywhere you look are elk (and sometimes bear) prints, and zero signs of humanity. We navigated everything via paper topo maps and got our water from Middle Ponil Creek. Definitely a more backcountry style adventure than what I'm planning to do this time.

Anyway, I wanted something taller for this trip, and was willing to forego the backpacking and solitude to accomplish it. And it sounds like the area around Huron might be our ticket from all the collected wisdom received on this site so far. A friend from Denver also suggested Mt. of the Holy Cross, but it seems like a good thing to try after we've tried something more easily accessible.

[Wigniter]

Huron intrigues me. Several of us have discussed the possibility of tackling two 14ers on this trip. That said, I wonder if we could do Quandary on Friday, then skip over to Huron for the Saturday hike. That way we could theoretically miss some of the rush. Just not sure if we're physically up for that much up and down, and wonder if we'll have the energy to pack and setup camps a few times like that right after doing our first 14er. Hmm....

Huron is a pretty hike. You can turn it into a pretty, less crowded loop with the possibility of a couple of 13ers. Look into the Lulu Gulch route. You can car camp at the 2wd or 4wd Lulu Gulch TH, hike up Lulu Gulch, tag Brown's Peak -and another ranked 13er if you're feeling ambitious- head up Huron and then down Huron's standard route and hike out a mile or 2 on the road to your cars.

Nice! I'm looking at that now. I kinda like the idea of hitting those 13ers along the way. Seems like a lot of exposure along the ridge for the second half of the hike (I actually love that part of hiking!). That route hits all my points, so its definitely in the running.

[glenmiz]

Huron is a pretty hike. You can turn it into a pretty, less crowded loop with the possibility of a couple of 13ers. Look into the Lulu Gulch route. You can car camp at the 2wd or 4wd Lulu Gulch TH, hike up Lulu Gulch, tag Brown's Peak -and another ranked 13er if you're feeling ambitious- head up Huron and then down Huron's standard route and hike out a mile or 2 on the road to your cars.

^^^^ THIS is a great idea! Have fun

[Wigniter]

You can also do two 14ers from the camp around Winfield, Huron and La Plata via Southwest Ridge. Don't know how big crowds you should expect there for the 4th of July though.

La Plata looks pretty cool, but definitely looks a little longer / more challenging than some of the other routes on Huron. That's not necessarily a bad thing, though. But I like the area! I'll keep looking around here, and hopefully nail something down within the next couple weeks.

[greenonion]

No to Delcalibron. Not that it will be too hard (it's really not) for first timers, but crowded and not pretty. Kite Lake will be a zoo.

Quandary is a better pick but also likely to be quite crowded.

I'd recommend Huron. Great first timer, a little less crowded (still crowded, but less so than most within 3-4 hours from Denver), prettier than Quandary & much prettier than Decalibron & ample car camping nearby. A little further than the other 2 but still within your 3-4 hour from Denver range (assuming you can avoid peak traffic times which might be an issue that weekend).

Huron intrigues me. Several of us have discussed the possibility of tackling two 14ers on this trip. That said, I wonder if we could do Quandary on Friday, then skip over to Huron for the Saturday hike. That way we could theoretically miss some of the rush. Just not sure if we're physically up for that much up and down, and wonder if we'll have the energy to pack and setup camps a few times like that right after doing our first 14er. Hmm....

Agreed. Huron is a great first timer and has some of the prettiest views of all. Also other doable 14ers close by. The Quandary, then Huron, idea is a good one too.

[Matt]

I'm sure there's a better (more high-tech) way to do this, but this is a pic of how I planned our summit route on Little Costilla.
We backpacked in by following Middle Ponil Creek from where it crosses FR 1950, up the valley between Little Costilla and Ash Mountain about 2-3 miles until you reach a large, open area. We setup our base camp in some trees along the edges of the clearing, and took the red route up to the summit the next morning. We took the yellow route down. The first time I tried this summit, we took the light blue route, and only got about halfway before we spent all our energy bushwacking and going up some really crazy terrain. We made it to the second (of four) false peaks before a storm showed up to the west and forced us to hurry down.
Its an amazing area. Completely wild. You definitely get the sense that you are the visitor, because everywhere you look are elk (and sometimes bear) prints, and zero signs of humanity. We navigated everything via paper topo maps and got our water from Middle Ponil Creek. Definitely a more backcountry style adventure than what I'm planning to do this time.

That's a cool way to approach that NM gem.
Another option in the Winfield area if you're looking for higher peaks besides Huron is the hike to centennial Mt. Hope and/or its neighbor Quail from Sheep Gulch. There's a solid trail for the first 2700' or so to Hope Pass, where you have a choice of peaks if doing just one. Then it's class 2 for either summit. Quail is 400' lower, if 4k of gain seems too much once you get there. The views are tremendous. Plus, while the parking areas at the 14er trailheads may be overfilled, crowds here should be minimal.

[Trotter]

Typical newbie/flatlander/first post thing...

I live in Oklahoma, and have a group of about 8-12 friends that have been doing some backpacking / hiking for the last few years. Our previous mountain summit experience is hiking up Little Costilla (~12,600 elevation with about 2,500 ft of gain) in northern NM. No trails, no established campsites, and we backpacked in to our base camp. Very remote and wild. Its an awesome trip. But we want to try a 14er this year.

I've done a fair amount of reading and research, and want to try either Quandary or the Decalibron for our upcoming trip (summer 2019) - maybe both.
Question 1: Is the Decalibron a good idea with relatively young, in shape folks who train a little beforehand? (I'm building in a full day and half at 10-12,000 ft to acclimate before attempting the hike.)

On a related note, we would like to car camp at Kite Lake.
Question 2: Can anyone comment on how crowded that will be in July?

thanks so much for all the input you're willing to share with a first-timer!

1. A standard 14er with ~3000 foot gain should not be an issue for yall in july. Leave in a acclimatization day for sure.

2. Kite lake on a weekday in july will have a few people. On a weekend it will be a zoo. The downside to decalibron is its not particularly pretty. And on a weekend it will be a conga line of people to the summits.

I'd second the idea of Huron or La plata. Another idea is Mt Elbert east ridge. Plenty of car camping in that area, and you'd get colorados highest 14er.

[DeTour]

Huron is a pretty hike. You can turn it into a pretty, less crowded loop with the possibility of a couple of 13ers. Look into the Lulu Gulch route. You can car camp at the 2wd or 4wd Lulu Gulch TH, hike up Lulu Gulch, tag Brown's Peak -and another ranked 13er if you're feeling ambitious- head up Huron and then down Huron's standard route and hike out a mile or 2 on the road to your cars.

We did Huron this way, including Pt. 13,462. Here's the TR:
https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... m=tripmine

As far as exposure, any there is, is completely optional, but yes, the ridge really drops off to the east. The stretch from Brown's Peak to Huron has a nice sporty section.

We had the route to ourselves until our approach hit the standard route for the final summit pitch, on a beautiful August Sunday.

[Wigniter]

1. A standard 14er with ~3000 foot gain should not be an issue for yall in july. Leave in a acclimatization day for sure.

2. Kite lake on a weekday in july will have a few people. On a weekend it will be a zoo. The downside to decalibron is its not particularly pretty. And on a weekend it will be a conga line of people to the summits.

I'd second the idea of Huron or La plata. Another idea is Mt Elbert east ridge. Plenty of car camping in that area, and you'd get colorados highest 14er.

Thanks for the input. I'm loving all this info - its exactly what I was hoping for. Better, actually. I kinda thought my post would go unanswered and fall to oblivion. I'm grateful that y'all have stepped in to help!!!

At this point, I'll probably focus my efforts on the areas around Winfield, since there appears to be abundant options, and people say its a pretty place to go. Both are big factors for us.

On an unrelated note, when a route says "RT Length" does that mean "route length" or "round trip length"?