13,030’

Closing out the West Willow Creek peaks with a happy little peak and the happiest little tree.

Approximate Distance: 6.45 Miles

~ 1528' Gain

In case anyone was wondering this last round of snow MOSTLY missed the La Garitas. Kiefer and I got up early and the plan was to hike the Baldy Cinco group minus no es Cinco since we already got up that one and had no desire to repeat it. (Thank you for the sufferfest moderna vaccine, but also thank you for protecting me somewhat from Covid so there’s that). As we drove towards Creede from South Fork I suggested we switch plans. We had one peak left from the West Willow Creek TH. Jupiter the Subaru can handle that road, but after another big snow it may not be passable and Spring Creek Pass is accessible year round. Plus considering fall allergies have been kicking my ass a nice easy day was in order, and I didn’t want to go into next year with just one little orphan in this area. Kiefer liked my idea to pivot and we headed up to the familiar trailhead. Sadly, the resident moose were nowhere to be found.

The La Garitas are known to be gentle rolling giants and for the most part are just long walks. There are two exceptions, 13,166 (class 3+/4) and 13,030 (class 2+/3 from West Willow creek/grassy stroll via Snow Mesa, but about 4 times the distance).

Kiefer convinced little Jupiter that she could make it part way up the continuing 4x4 road from the West Willow trailhead, and she did a great job of getting us to a beautiful parking spot at 11,909’.

We began hiking up the remainder of the road and quickly reached the saddle south of Point 13115 between West Willow and Rat Creek basins. Once you reach the saddle between the basins 13,030 comes into view across the basin.

The road begins losing elevation and heads to the south. If you continue on the road you’ll end up losing about 300 feet of elevation but it’s possible to stay high and traverse the side of the basin below a couple of talus gullies aiming for the wide grassy saddle to the northeast of the peak. This route still has some loss and gain, but it is minimal and easy travel across the tundra. On the way across the contour we saw the cutest perfectly round tree right down in the valley below.

From the saddle we encountered our first snow as we headed closer to the peak. None of the snow was problematic and traction wasn’t needed. The ridge steepened sharply as it transitioned from tundra to talus with snow in spots.

We soon reached a tower on the ridge; at this tower we headed to the left below a small bulge and reached a small section of class 3 scrambling. Pictures from other trip reports make this look much more exposed than it is. There is a slightly more exposed class 2+ route to the left, but we’re both comfortable with class 3 so we took that route both up and down.

After the too short class 3 section the ridge is mostly tundra and talus to the grassy summit.

The views of the Snow Mesa peaks and San Luis area were amazing and we were able to see Rio Grande Pyramid and the Weminuche rising to the west as well as the Lake City peaks across Snow Mesa.

We enjoyed the perfect weather on the summit for probably 20 minutes had some snacks and reversed course back down the mountain.

The elevation gain to exit Rat Creek basin was gradual and we quickly made it back to the road and the saddle. We had some more snacks and made short work of the mile back to Jupiter waiting for us. It felt amazing to get up another remote peak in the La Garitas after such a busy month of September. We hopped in Jupiter and headed back out to Creede. This was our only trip to West Willow Creek that we sadly didn’t see any of the local moose. Getting a seltzer/beer at Spare Keg has become a bit of a Creede tradition so we stopped in for our celebratory drink and headed out for the long drive home.