Mt. Owen

Route: Wild Cherry
Posted On: 6/14/2025, By: rachel
Info: From Wild Cherry Creek Trailhead, I followed HikerGuy's excellent gpx route to climb Mt. Owen, Cotton King Peak and 13,130. Mt. Owen was snow-free. Few, minor patches of snow on the ridge to Cotton King Peak. 13,130 was snow free. No mosquitoes (yet). 

Route: West ridge
Posted On: 5/24/2025, By: Dobsons
Info: Did the loop with Owen, cotton king, and 13122 from wild cherry creek trailhead. Owen is completely summer conditions with zero snow on the ascent route. I stayed on the pleasant wild cherry trail for 4.5 miles then turned left and ascended up to the west ridge through trees. The traverses are enjoyable and there is some snow to manage still. One slope early in the morning on the traverse from Owen was very firm still and down sloping into some rocks that I was happy to have micro spikes and an ax. If the snow was a bit softer in the day it would have been negligible along with the rest of the snow present on the loop. 

Route: From Wild Cherry TH
Posted On: 6/13/2024, By: ScottLovesRMNP
Info: I drove my Corolla to within a half-mile of the TH. In dry conditions like today, I probably couldve carefully gotten the car up there, but it wasnt worth the stress and hassle. If wet, the roads powdery dirt wouldve had the consistency of quicksand in places and would require a vehicle with a strong get engine than mine in some places to avoid getting stuck in mud. Route is in summer conditions. No snow on the route, but beautiful snow scenery on other nearby peaks. Probably timed this hike fairly well, the breeze kept the mosquitoes away, but they are definitely around. Worse, Ive found several ticks on me, my car, and my stuff since getting down. Its that time of year! 

Route: Wild Cherry Creek
Posted On: 11/19/2023, By: shepherdkyle
Info: Road to Wild Cherry Creek TH is 2WD. Climbed along with Cotton King Peak and Unnamed 13,122 (13,130 per LiDAR). Wild Cherry trail in good condition. Gradual incline that goes largely unnoticed. Started sunny, but turned cold and snowy. Descent off 122 not difficult-new register placed by Anima with correct elevation. Only a dusting as of Saturday evening. 15.6 miles and 6,650 gain. Under 12 hours. Pulchritudinous pictures by Anima. Foudroyant spectacles of lightning in the San Luis Valley coming down. 

Route: Wild Cherry
Posted On: 11/13/2023, By: Skimo95
Info: Wild Cherry trailhead is rough 2WD. I have seen previous TRs worried about the road. The washed out road is no longer accessible and the new one is great. I would recommend a bit of clearance in sections, but should be no problem for the rav4/Subaru/Mazda groups. Great trail leading to tree line, the slope really sucks in town shoes but goes quickly. Easy jaunt after the 2,000. Summit register is wet in a mason glass/ziploc container, not a good idea for a summit register. 

Route: Wild Cherry loop
Posted On: 9/8/2023, By: 9patrickmurphy
Info: Climbed along with 13,122 and 13,490 ("King Cotton Peak"). I packed in almost 4 miles to an obvious clearing at 11,000', right at the confluence of Wild Cherry Creek and a large drainage to the South. Not a lot of shade in this clearing, but plenty of room for lots of tents and good creek access. The bushwhack up the unnamed southern drainage was at first annoying, then quickly got very very easy. Game trails took me to treeline, then steep grass up to 13,122. The rest of the ridge run is a very undulating rollercoaster ridge with a pretty annoying amount of up and down. A lot of the bumps can be skirted, and nothing ever needded to exceed class 2. Spectacular views. I descended Owen's SE ridge until point 11,710, at which point I cut back to the trail and to my camp. All the up and down along the ridge made me happy to have a place to lay down before packing out, but I completed the loop in 6.5 hours, so this would honestly be a pretty reasonable dayhike, albeit with a lot of gain. The Wild Cherry trail is so well-constructed and gradual that you probably wouldn't even notice the gain, just the time passed. 

Route: Wild Cherry
Posted On: 4/23/2023, By: Sbenfield
Info: Brought snowshoes, but did not use. The trail is snow-free for a while, and then when it had snow it didnt require snowshoes. Eventually we bushwhacked to the ridge after the trail took a turn to the lakes. At the ridge we encountered snow fall from the prior evening, micro spikes can be helpful here. Limited visibility at summit, but the sun came out in the afternoon melting a lot of the prior evenings snow 

Route: Wild Cherry TH
Posted On: 10/4/2018, By: tdawg012
Info: Dry as a bone. Small remnant of snow on rocky northeast faces. 

Route: West Slope
Posted On: 4/19/2018, By: desertdog
Info: I climbed Owen from the Wild Cherry Creek TH. No snow to be found anywhere on the whole route. Other than some downed trees, the approach trail is in great shape and a beautiful hike. After 4 or 5 miles you will come to a large meadow, continue hiking up some switchbacks at the east end of the meadow.You will see a obvious gully on the left. Climb this gully to gain access to Owen's west slope. It is about 2500 feet of leg burning climbing from here to the summit. This area is absolute wilderness. I did not see a soul all day. 

Route: Mt. Owen A-PT 13,490-13,122
Posted On: 11/12/2017, By: brerrabbit
Info: Brought snowshoes but no need for them. Microspikes used after Mt. Owen through PT 13,490 and 13,122 and down to treeline. More snow than expected, basically on all aspects although other S/SW/W aspects on the De Anza/Electric group were holding less snow the Owen group. Bypasses off the ridegline were a bit tedious with sugary trapdoor snow. Longer day than planned but great area. TH is definitely high clearance recommended but completely dry as it's all pretty open to the sun.