Bard Peak

Route: Watrous Gulch (west slopes)
Posted On: 6/6/2026, By: pthomps17
Info: Basically full summer conditions on both Parnassus and Bard. Stepped on snow on the saddle between the two peaks for probably a total of 20 steps. 

Route: West Ridge Traverse
Posted On: 6/2/2026, By: gento
Info: Climbed Machebeuf, Woods, Parnassaus, & Bard along ridgeline from Herman Gulch Trailhead. Ridge was mostly dry, with small patches of snow that could be crossed easily and safely without exposure. Brought trail runners and forgot microspikes at home. Luckily I had no need for them. Return along Bard Creek trail was the crux of the route with short traverse across steep snow, and some route-finding challenges as faint trail was lost under snow drifts in NW facing forest. 

Route: P,B,R,E from Ruby Gulch
Posted On: 10/19/2025, By: masonzastrow
Info: Still very dry. The only snow of the day was descending Bard to the north, and it was easily avoidable. Very windy up there today. Most streams were at least partly flowing still. Deadfall on the descent from Engelmann wasn't that bad, generally easy to avoid. 

Route: daway8's Bard Quartet
Posted On: 10/13/2025, By: jakewilson
Info: Did the 4 pack from Ruby Gulch TH. ~1-2 inches of snow on the ground along the whole route in the morning, but not enough to hide grass and rocks. Sun was out in the afternoon and may have melted quite a bit. 

Route: Via Mt. Parnassus
Posted On: 9/15/2025, By: Rampaging Baloths
Info: The I70 corridor only got but a dusting and it’s basically gone at this point.

Whole trail was dry. Summits were dry. Summer conditions all around.

Some very minor non problematic snow sticking to the north face of most peaks (including Torreys)

Leaves are starting to get going down low too.

Fall is here! 

Route: From Parnassus, Herman Gulch
Posted On: 7/6/2025, By: cdgibbons
Info: Summer Conditions. From Herman Gulch via Parnassus, descended Bard Creek Trail. Saw about 10 people on Parnassus early, but had Bard to myself all day on the Sunday of 4th of July weekend.

I didn't find much beta on the Bard Creek Trail descent when planning this, so I'll add some notes here. With plenty of time to explore and good weather, I took a longer route, descending the SE shoulder of Bard to 11,970 where the trail crosses it, marked by the large cairn in the first photo. This made for an 11.6 mile loop, 4750 feet, and about 850 feet of elevation regained and lost along the trail. A shorter, simpler, steeper option would be to descend directly south from Bard's summit on steep grass, finding the trail at 11,700. One doing this would look for the trail segment in the second photo, angling out of an obvious gully. There's probably a third choice to return to the Bard-Parnassus saddle and descend the creek bed that drains that gully. Can't say for certain what is required to skirt willows and rocks, and that option drops you into an annoying rock glacier where the trail is hard to find- look for segments on the ridge on the right skyline.

The Bard Creek Trail is faint in spots and requires a bit of route finding attention, but it goes. The sections east of the summit are pretty remote for something so close to I-70. I found this a thoroughly enjoyable tour, though reclimbing Parnassus is likely easier than any of these options. 

Route: Via Parnassus Peak - Watrous Gulch
Posted On: 6/19/2025, By: ColoradoZebo
Info: Beautiful day! Did Mt Parnassus from Watrous Gulch then crossed the ridge to Bard Peak. One snow crossing that's a little sinky still but the rest is avoidable. 10mi 4500vert, this is a steep fun day! Great training hike. 

Route: Herman/Watrous Gulch over Parnassus and back
Posted On: 6/25/2024, By: HikesInGeologicTime
Info: Practically unchanged since AndrewJCraigie updated over the weekend; wanted to add some general info for those also looking to go this way rather than the loop from Ruby Gulch.

Trail peters out at the saddle between Parnassus and Woods. Faint trail segments with the occasional cairn from the middle of the slope above to the summit. There is something of a continuous trail down Parnassus that hits a low point below the largest snowfield I saw all day around 180 feet below the Bard saddle, according to my GPS, after which I climbed tundra on a more or less direct approach to the summit.

On the way back, I stuck closer to the ridge since the snow crossings up high were short and well-traveled, so felt pretty secure. Staying more ridge proper does mean a few more ups and downs as well as dealing with more rock-hopping than dropping below the saddle to reconnect with the sorta-trail - pick your poison, but I personally found the boulder-hopping more aggravating and therefore not worth saving the 180-ish feet of elevation re-gain so will probably drop all the way down if/when I ever do the full loop.

Just these two by themselves, though, make for a pleasant day hike and of course a good way to up the Front Range Bicentennial count without running as much risk of being caught above treeline when any afternoon storms roll in if you are as slow as I am and/or disinclined to starting in the dark (a disinclination I understand, as this outing is pretty enough for being that close to I-70 that it deserves to be appreciated in daylight, imho). 

Route: Herman Gulch
Posted On: 6/22/2024, By: AndrewJCraigie
Info: Parnassus & Bard - only a few very briefly handful patches of snow melting quick, easily avoided. 

Route: From Parnassus
Posted On: 12/28/2023, By: bmcqueen
Info: From Parnassus, I continued along the ridge to Bard with no snowshoes or traction. On the descent, I decided to drop down into the basin and pick up the Bard Creek trail. It would have been better to reclimb Parnassus. Bard Creek trail was a bit difficult to find, then crossed several slopes that would have been problematic with more snow/higher avalanche danger. I wore my snowshoes again from the time I hit the trail to my car. 

Route: Traverse from Parnassus
Posted On: 11/13/2023, By: Piotr
Info: Downclimb to the saddle mostly snow covered, slow going. Climb up to Bard from the saddle is 95% dry. Most of the descent to Bard Creek trail is dry as well except for the last 100' upclimb. Few sections of Bard Creek Trail had packed snow, nothing major. Great day, sunny, 40F+ at trailhead. 

Route: EngelRoBardAssus
Posted On: 7/17/2023, By: E_A_Marcus_949
Info: Summer conditions - avoidable snowfields near the summit
Found a black beanie on the summit - let me know if it's yours

Route: Ruby Gulch --> Engelmann --> Robeson --> Bard --> Parnassus --> down to Ruby Gulch 

Route: from Bakerville exit
Posted On: 6/27/2023, By: Jay521
Info: Tons of deadfall made this a slow climb What snow there was (not much) was either avoidable or easily crossed 

Route: West Ridge
Posted On: 5/26/2023, By: PeakMiller
Info: We skinned, then booted up to the saddle between Bard and Parnassus. Put on some trail runners and scooted up to Bard Pk. We grabbed our gear on the way back to head up to Parney. We skied the drainage of the north slope. Had great snow and timed it perfectly. Thunderstorms started to roll in by the time we got down to treeline. 

Route: via Herman Gulch
Posted On: 4/29/2023, By: daway8
Info: Went up Parnassus then Bard starting from Herman Gulch trailhead off I-70. Extremely variable conditions throughout the day. Trail initially a mix of dirt and ultra compacted snow. Then deeper snow where snowshoes were useful then steep but very solid snow going up the ridge (followed more or less the tracks luckyzsquirrel posted in a TR). Higher up turned to mix of snow/rock.
From Parnassus to Bard got much more interesting - switched constantly from deep snow with trapdoors to exposed rocks completely coated in a sheet of ice, with ice cycles hanging off them, followed by somewhat narrow sections of ridge with steep snowfields on either side and occasionally rather large cornices. Looked like it would have been easy to go over to Robeson/Englemann but I started really late and hadn't done any significant climbs for a while so I was too beat to add those peaks. Went back over Parnassus and down same route I came up but was terribly slow getting back so it was already after 4pm before I started down and the slopes were getting very soggy and sketch by then. Was already too committed and too tired to reroute so crossed my fingers and went for it, doing some glissading with ice axe before switching to snowshoes. Towards the bottom a few whomphs freaked me out but I didn't die, and somehow didn't trigger any slides. Note to self: don't come down this route after it warms up - that felt like a disaster waiting to happen.