My kids and I hiked La Plata Peak on Sunday which is a truly magnificent place. The views were spectacular, and it was a nice challenge. I see another post for La Plata from this same day which provides a good description of the trail, so I won’t go into that. The conditions were perfect with limited wind and ideal temperatures. It was in the upper 30s when we started at 7:50, and was probably in the 40s at the summit. It took 7 hours and 10 minutes for the round trip, with the trip down taking almost as long as the trip up, although we did stop a lot on the way down.

We flew in from Boston on Thursday night with the plan of 2 easy days of hiking and then to tackle a 14er on Sunday. We had difficulty with the altitude on Friday and Saturday, and were out of breath even for the easiest walk. We hiked part of Lincoln on Saturday but didn’t make it to the top. By Sunday we seemed to mostly have adapted to the altitude but weren’t sure of our ability. I did a lot of research and picked La Plata since the distance, vertical and technical challenge seemed to be consistent with our experience. La Plata did seem to present a similar challenge, but the terrain is not quite the same as New Hampshire. Other than the altitude, the biggest difference is the steep switchbacks with loose dirt and small rocks. Navigating this terrain took some practice. We’ve hiked equally as steep terrain in the east but usually with trees and good hand holds, or rocks that are not too difficult to climb. Most of the 4,300 feet of elevation gain comes in the last 2 ½ miles so its steep. Also didn’t realize that there would be thorns everywhere.

As noted in the trail description route finding can be challenging near the top. There are cairns but they can be hard to spot. The trail description says “If you cannot find a trail, stay on the ridge”. This is really important advice. As noted in the other report, someone had started down from the summit well off the trail. She had gone down to a point where the slope was very steep with looser, smaller rocks, and was almost to the point where she would have started to slide. Luckily she stopped and was able to traverse back to the trail.

A very successful and challenging day. Can’t wait to return.