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The West Elk Wilderness is one of the least accessed wilderness areas in the lower 48. With Mill Creek being easily the most used area. With that being said most of the trails in the wilderness area are not well used or maintained so having good navigation skills are pretty essential for effective travel. Living in the Gunnison Valley and looing up at West Elk year round is very intriguing. When the opportunity arose to give a two night backpacking trip a go arose it was easy to jump on. Since all the other TR's on West Elk are from the southern approach from Mill Creek this report should provide good information on the northern approach to West Elk.
Swampy Pass Trailhead is about 20 minutes farther up Ohio Pass from Mill Creek. The Road is very easy 2wd dirt with the parking area being very large with a pit toilet. The trail starts across the road and climbs quickly to provide a great view for the northern West Elks
From this point West Elk is directly behind and slightly right of the castles and seems a long way away. The trail meanders through an aspen forest while not really gaining or losing significant elevation for the next 2 miles or so.
After dropping a few hundred feet into a meadow you will climb the next few hundred feet into a pine forest. The trail then slowly gains some elevation while continuing slowly SW. After 4.5 miles the trail will open into another large meadow with incredible views of the castles and your first good views of the north side of Storm Pass.
After another mile of walking through the meadows the trail turns south and at the end of the meadow there is a fairly sizable creek crossing. For us it was a get your feet wet crossing but later in the season there may be a dry crossing point.
From the creek crossing follow the signs toward storm pass while you gain 300-400 feet of vertical. The ideal camping location for this approach is a lake at around 10,000 ft. This is around 7 miles and 1,500 feet into the trip. Above this spot there are not many flat areas for camping and reliable water becomes fewer.
From camp the trail up Storm Pass heads south along the wetland the does an ascending contour beneath the castles. From the Lake onward the trail becomes thin and hard to follow in places.
The trail is easy enough as it climbs to ~11,200ft. From this point the trail climbs the north side of storm pass which is much steeper and less used than the south side of storm.
From the top of Storm Pass it is a straight forward ridge hike to the summit of West Elk. On the decent due to the wind and hazardous terrain just below the top of Storm Pass we dropped off the saddle into the upper basin and traversed east along the south slopes towards tree line and lower Storm Pass. Potentially when the snow is melted the trail up Storm would be easy to follow and use but with snow it was hazardous without traction.
This route is very off the beaten path and the views are amazing. The trails may see less than 50 people a year and depending on use they might not exist in a few years. I would highly recommend spending some time in this part of Colorado. Unfortunately my GPX track is only from camp to West Elk and back but the rest is well marked.
My GPS Tracks on Google Maps (made from a .GPX file upload):
I tried to climb West Elk years ago from Mill Creek but got weathered off. Made it to Storm Pass (figures) and had to turn back. Looks gorgeous this way!
Awesome report! After doing West Elk from this direction (also in June), I totally agree with the camp spot and with descending West Elk in the basin. It avoids the steep, snowy portion of Storm Pass, but reconnects with the trail above some small cliffs.
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