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With all the ongoing fires in Colorado this summer, I decided to do most of my climbing up here in Wyoming where I live now. I did, however, still do Culebra Peak and Red Mountain since I had already booked the last day to climb on July 31st knowing I would eventually have to pay up to finish. This gave me my 49th 14er and got my money's worth by summiting Red Mountain as well.
To start the 2 week climbing vacation, me and my oldest son went into the Bighorns to climb the highest point in the range of Cloud Peak. We saw moose, camped through storms, and hiked through torrential downpours. In the end, it was worth the view, even with all the boulder hopping that ended with a 15 mile slog fest to summit and back to the trailhead so he could make it to work the next day.
Cloud Peak Summit
Cloud Peak Summit Marker
The next stop for us both, was to climb the highest point in the Snowy Range down south for Medicine Bow Peak. More moose to see, but perfect weather and an actual trail that made for a pleasant morning.
Medicine Bow Peak Summit Marker
Medicine Bow Peak Summit
That would be the end of his climbing with me and time to go solo the rest of the trip. The next stop would be the highest point in the southern Winds as I had already reached the highest of the state and entire Wind River Range Gannett Peak in 2024. That was the hardest climb to date, but Wind River Peak was not something to take lightly. A long hike in before summiting the next morning and hiking out all in the same day. More storms to endure in the evening, plus snow to navigate led to a successful and hard fought summit.
Last but not least came Culebra Peak and Red Mountain, with a long drive that had me reach the gate after sunset the night before. After a short sleep it felt like, I checked in at the headquarters and drove up to the upper trailhead to start by 7AM. A late start for any climbs I do, I had no control over being that late of a check-in. A pretty mountain and nice hike mostly on open terrain, it was worth the views but not to do again after the climbing fee. Regardless, it resulted in summitting my 49th 14ers to move on to the rest of the Elks and last of the San Juans of the Chicago Basin next summer to hopefully finish it all off with family in toe to experience the train ride and be there for the last of it. Time will tell with a year to stay in shape and plan for next July and/or August. By the way, I think Red Mountain ended up being a bit harder due to the scree to go up and down from the saddle between it and Culebra. Even the traverse back to the eastern Culebra saddle was not easy to accomplish, but in the end, had to get that money's worth to get two peaks at that price.
Culebra Peak Summit
Culebra Peak Summit Marker
Red Mountain
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