Grays Peak Trip Report 09/03/2013

Peak(s):	Grays Peak - 14,275 feet Torreys Peak - 14,272 feet
Date Posted:	09/03/2013
Date Climbed:	09/02/2013
Author:	vusteph

Grays and Torreys: aka Breeze's Photoshoot
climbers: myself, Alex, Breeze (the dog) We left Broomfield around 3:30am which put us on the trail around 5:45am. I was surprised that the exit literally put you on the road to Grays. No real searching, just take exit 221 off of I-70 and trudge on up the dirt road. We had no problems in our Rav4 and later on the way down we saw everything from a Civic to a Prius parked up high on the road. We were impressed! There were some spots where we were glad to have awd and wondered how the tiny cars made it unscathed (maybe I should try bringing my mazda 3 next time instead). BY THE WAY. This is important to me. Not so much to my dog or my boyfriend, but there is no real place to go to the bathroom besides the composting toilet at the parking lot. Just an FYI...there are a few trees right at the start but then it all disappears and there's no where to hide. We started in the dark and when the sun came out I made us stop like 50 times to take pictures of sunrise. Lo and behold: It was a real nice hike through the valley and the trail is nice, groomed, and easy to follow. Once we got to the end of the valley and started climbing up it was still very easy to follow the trail. We took the regular standard route up Grays then traversed over to Torreys then down the exit path on the saddle. No snow on the saddle and pretty straightforward. View from top of Grays and our summit shot: Summit shot on Torreys: View of Grays from Torreys: Here is Breeze's photoshoot. Note that in pictures with her intense stare she was staring at a pupperoni (her summit snacks): This was Breeze's 2nd and 3rd 14er and just like the first she blazed a trail up, dragging us behind her. Luckily for her we did Torreys as well and I think it only took two 14ers in a day to finally tire her out. It wasn't as crowded as Quandary (at least it didn't feel that way). We finished around 12:30pm and the drive back...well, I think you can imagine traffic coming back on Labor Day which led to our first rule: 14ers only the day before people would be coming back from ~the mountains~ (Saturdays usually, but in this case, Sunday would have been alright...maybe?) Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Grays and Torreys: aka Breeze's Photoshoot

climbers: myself, Alex, Breeze (the dog)

We left Broomfield around 3:30am which put us on the trail around 5:45am. I was surprised that the exit literally put you on the road to Grays. No real searching, just take exit 221 off of I-70 and trudge on up the dirt road. We had no problems in our Rav4 and later on the way down we saw everything from a Civic to a Prius parked up high on the road. We were impressed! There were some spots where we were glad to have awd and wondered how the tiny cars made it unscathed (maybe I should try bringing my mazda 3 next time instead).

BY THE WAY. This is important to me. Not so much to my dog or my boyfriend, but there is no real place to go to the bathroom besides the composting toilet at the parking lot. Just an FYI...there are a few trees right at the start but then it all disappears and there's no where to hide.

We started in the dark and when the sun came out I made us stop like 50 times to take pictures of sunrise. Lo and behold:

It was a real nice hike through the valley and the trail is nice, groomed, and easy to follow. Once we got to the end of the valley and started climbing up it was still very easy to follow the trail. We took the regular standard route up Grays then traversed over to Torreys then down the exit path on the saddle. No snow on the saddle and pretty straightforward.

View from top of Grays and our summit shot:

Summit shot on Torreys:

View of Grays from Torreys:

Here is Breeze's photoshoot. Note that in pictures with her *intense* stare she was staring at a pupperoni (her summit snacks):

This was Breeze's 2nd and 3rd 14er and just like the first she blazed a trail up, dragging us behind her. Luckily for her we did Torreys as well and I think it only took two 14ers in a day to finally tire her out.

It wasn't as crowded as Quandary (at least it didn't feel that way). We finished around 12:30pm and the drive back...well, I think you can imagine traffic coming back on Labor Day which led to our first rule: 14ers only the day before people would be coming back from ~the mountains~ (Saturdays usually, but in this case, Sunday would have been alright...maybe?)

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

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