Garfield Basin Bushwack

[trouttickler]

Hi everyone! Might be a bit of a long shot. I was wondering if any of you had bushwacked from the Molas Trail/Animas River up to the Garfield Lakes in the Weminuche. I want to camp at the Lower lake and visit both;however it looks STEEP. Looks like you’d have to bushwack 3/4 mile to get into the basin (private property on/near the tracks?) and then gain 2600 feet in a mile and a half. Is it doable? Any pictures or trip reports would be much appreciated. Thank you!

[cottonmountaineering]

ive always wondered how people are climbing the mountains around that area, might take the climbers trail to vestal basin and then cut over above treeline?

[yaktoleft13]

I did what cotton mentioned. Hiked up the CT to the beaver ponds, took the vestal basin spur, then veered off at the obvious gully and went up there. That gully is north facing and holds snow a long time. If you go early season it may not be melted out enough to sneak by on the side and instead require some snow climbing. GPX file and a couple of pictures of the gully/slabs in the basin here: https://www.14ers.com/php14ers/triprepo ... m=tripmine

I think it would come out to 12ish miles and 4k gain. Haven't seen any beta on the direct assault up the basin from the animas, but I've got to imagine it's a fierce bushwhack.

[Chicago Transplant]

Same as above, the gully between Electric and Arrow is how I accessed those peaks both times. Garfield is a fun ridge and was the most enjoyable of that group.

As far as the bushwhack up for the train tracks idea, I think you would be likely quite miserable from looking at the topo and satellite. The steeper parts at the bottom seem similar in contours to the steepest parts of the Vestal Basin climbers trail and that trail is pretty gnarly in those sections. Doing that type of terrain with no trail would be pretty miserable I would expect.

[Kiefer]

Hi everyone! Might be a bit of a long shot. I was wondering if any of you had bushwacked from the Molas Trail/Animas River up to the Garfield Lakes in the Weminuche. I want to camp at the Lower lake and visit both;however it looks STEEP. Looks like you’d have to bushwack 3/4 mile to get into the basin (private property on/near the tracks?) and then gain 2600 feet in a mile and a half. Is it doable? Any pictures or trip reports would be much appreciated. Thank you!

I've wondered this same thing for a long time. I remember staying on the summit of Turkshead Peak for a long time scrutinizing that slope in hopes of spying a way DOWN it...accessing that upper basin by way of what Mike & Eric stated; making a loop.

Years ago, I got dropped off at Elk Park and went straight up the slope to Arrow Benchmark & 12,959. Assuming that was similar to the Garfield slope you speak of, yes, it was STEEP.
That Garfield slope has small cliff bands though. Getting through those is going to be the key in unlocking that slope.

Weirdly, I actually have that "route" on my agenda for this summer. If you'd be interested in tackling it together, reach out.

[supranihilest]

Throwing in my agreement with cotton, yak, and CT as well. Take the trail towards Vestal Basin then go up the gully between Electric and Arrow. I don't remember the gully at all, which means it either wasn't a bad bushwhack (more likely) or it was a horrific bushwhack and I've tricked myself into forgetting (unlikely). Either way, it'll be better than coming straight up from the Animas. I don't usually mind bushwhacking and you couldn't pay me to try that. The payoff of a longer, less direct way where you gain more vert on easier terrain, i.e. a trail, is almost always greater than just trying to be as direct as possible if the direct terrain sucks.

[sanjuanmtneer]

I did that bushwhack in August 1979. I was 24 and pretty strong. It was difficult but I was able to find a way around any cliff bands I encountered. However, that was back when the forest was healthy and I didn't encounter much deadfall, I'd expect that to be different these days. Camping for 2 nights at the lake at 11,510 is one of my fondest memories. I did Graystone, Point Pun and Mt. Garfield as a short day trip from my camp (red star).

[Grizzly Adams]

After checking out this route from Snowdon earlier in the week I decided to give it a go. If you enjoy the Ruby Basin approach early in the year this may be for you! I followed the general track posted above. There are some faint game trails once leaving the Animas but until you reach the slabby terrain at 9500' it's very steep, full of deadfall and pretty miserable. After reaching the slabs it's still steep but has a lot of fun scrambling with a few sections of easy c5 to keep you going up looking for more. The couple sections of cliffs can be bypassed but are steeep and if you're not comfortable route finding and scrambling with an overnight pack don't attempt this. Once at 11500' you can either head to the lake or continue on to Garfield, I chose to call it a day and return to Molas though since my !0:30 start was a little too late for a summit attempt. If your main objective is to check off peaks I wouldn't recommend this route but if you're looking for an adventure and solitude go for it.