Overlook Point 13,005’

Colorado Rank #632

~ 8.3 miles, 2060’ gain

Overlook Point is one of Colorado’s newest 13ers, recent LiDAR surveys established its elevation at 13,005’ rather than the original elevation of 12,998 feet. From Highway 550, or from Purgatory ski area, Overlook Point is simply an unassuming long grassy ridge, and doesn’t look remotely exciting. However in my quest to summit all the ranked 13ers in the San Juan Mountain Range, I had read Mike’s (ChicagoTransplant) trip report of the Endlich Mesa group from Lime Mesa Trailhead. He tacked on Overlook Point and mentioned the views were absolutely amazing. Kiefer didn’t understand why I was so adamant about getting up this low and “boring” 13er but like our dog, Kaiah, with her sharkie toy, I was not letting this one go. There was only one continuous problem, our truck is still in the shop, and has been since May and the Lime Mesa Trailhead is high clearance 4x4 only.

Mike’s trip report mentions a shortcut trail up to Lime Mesa, which allows rough 2WD access for the last 3 miles to the parking area at 10,900 feet and cuts off 2+ miles each way. I suggested to Kiefer that we head up to Lime Mesa and try to find the shortcut trail. Thanks to Mike’s report, we had no problems.

At first the trail was overgrown in spots and harder to follow, but eventually it became a well-established trail that met up with the Lime Mesa trail just to the north of Lime Mesa (12,093’) and Dollar Lake.

The trail was mellow and we made quick progress up towards Lime Mesa. Marmots and Pikas whistled and barked at us from the nearby cliffs. On the way back out Kiefer wanted to hike up Lime Mesa too, but it was not to happen.

Once we joined the Lime Mesa trail we turned left and headed north towards Overlook Point. The weather was perfect, and we were able to take our time and enjoy the expanding views around us.

We followed the excellent and mellow trail to 12,400’ where we cut left up tundra slopes to gain the false summit of Overlook Point. This is NOT NECESSARY, and I do not recommend following this route. By gaining the false summit, we were able to take some pictures on a rocky outcropping with the Chicago Basin peaks behind us, and the views were incredible.

We were able to look down on Ruby Lake, and across the basin, Pigeon, Turret, Peak 15, Chicago Basin, Endlich Mesa, and Rio Grande Pyramid were standing tall. We stayed on the grassy ridge enjoying a snack and the views before we moved on to gain the true summit. The only peak I have hiked that rivals the views (so far) is Mt. Rhoda and the views of Vestal, Arrow, and the Trinities, etc.

After soaking in the views, and with Kiefer now understanding why I was so hungry to hike this peak, we headed up and across some talus to the top of the false summit. This was still easy going. From the top of the false summit, we were presented with a talus slope to descend. The descent was maybe 100’ however everything moved, and there were large chasms between the rocks you would not want to fall into. At one point every microwave sized block around me was sliding. To add insult to injury, as we were tiptoeing down the very “portable” talus, we saw a faint trail in the meadow below us which skirted around the false summit all on lush tundra. I would highly recommend skirting the false summit.

The meadow below the peak was gorgeous, and there was no loose rock to be found. After crossing the tippy talus section, the remainder of the hike to the summit was all on tundra with a few rocky sections to cross. The summit was BEAUTIFUL. We were able to see our 2020 campsite in Chicago Basin below, and the waterfall feeding the creek we filled our water bottles in after summitting Jupiter Mtn, and on our return hike from Mt. Valois the next day. To this day, that is the best unfiltered/untreated water I have ever tasted.

After taking 20-30 minutes to soak in the incredible views we descended down the tundra slope from the summit to meet the faint game trail. We skirted the false summit and contoured back to the Lime Mesa Trail.

We quickly descended the trail back toward the shortcut, and realized another detour was in order. We had Kaiah with us, and a herd of sheep with their guardian dogs had stopped to graze right at the trail junction with the shortcut trail. Rather than continuing on to summit Lime Mesa and return to the trail we descended more tundra to the right of the shortcut trail and met up with it lower down in the valley. We hiked back to the car and headed down the long dirt road back to Durango to end the day with some exciting errands.

With Overlook Point I have reached the quarter mark on my goal of summitting all of our home range 13ers, and I could not have asked for a prettier peak. Thank you to Mike for the amazing trip reports with beta on the shortcut trail and thank you to Kiefer for accompanying me on these sometimes obscure 13ers.

FYI – I forgot to turn on GAIA tracking until we were .5 mile from the car, so the GPX track is missing the first part of the hike on the way up.