On this trip to Colorado, I had planned to finish with a climb of Pyramid. I even had the 24 hour parking pass. But, I had been slightly ill all week, plus the forecast didn't look great, so I decided to finish the trip on the medium-easy Princeton instead of one of the very hardest in Pyramid.

With a 4WD vehicle, I drove up the road to the radio towers. The Mt. Princeton road is not a terribly rough 4WD road, but it is narrow and doesn't have many places where you can pass an oncoming car. Plan accordingly! There is parking at the radio towers, and some places beyond them too.

Hiking on up the road, the sun came up and it was a perfect morning. Sunny, not too windy, pleasantly cool.

After a few long switchbacks, the trail splits off from the right of the road. It's not hard to spot as there are stairs built into the start of the trail, but do keep your eyes open because you could miss it if you're not paying attention. The trail appears just as you are reaching the tree line.

The start of the path is a pleasant dirt trail. Soon, you will see Princeton's summit, still a few miles distant.

This is not a route you can get lost on: You can see the summit nearly the whole way.

The path gradually crosses the side of "Tigger Peak", and becomes rougher, but not steep.

Once past "Tigger Peak", you'll see the saddle between it and Princeton up to your left: watch for a small wall of rocks blocking your way forward, while the trail turns sharply left and switchbacks up the slope to the saddle.

Once on the saddle, simply turn right and scamper upwards on or just to the right on the ridge. From here, the path gets a good bit more difficult. It doesn't exceed class 2, but is a bit looser and quite a bit steeper from here up.

Especially for the lower part of the ridge, you might consider angling further left: the climbing will be harder (class 2+ / 3-), but I found the path more solid. I much prefer solid class 3 than loose scree class 2.

Continue up the ridge, which contains no nasty surprises, and before long you'll be on the summit!

Princeton has some amazing views. You can see a long way, since there aren't any peaks nearing its height nearby. The closest is the slightly higher Antero to the south. More views from the summit:

Princeton is a lovely hike, with views improving with altitude and a pleasant difficulty: medium-easy by 14er standards. This is a great climb, I think, if you've climbed a few of the easiest 14ers (Quandary, Sherman, etc.) and want to step up. It's steeper and tougher, but not overwhelmingly so, and it's a clear path with no route-finding involved.

I found the descent rather like the Longs Peak descent (albeit quite a bit shorter and easier than Longs). How? The descent on both peaks gets gradually easier the farther you descend. Coming down Princeton begins with the steep, sometimes loose descent of the ridge. Then the less steep but still rough hike across the boulders along the side of "Tigger". After that, the path mellows out the a dirt path and then you're back on the road.