September is my favorite time to hike, even late in the month can get you some good colors and with some luck good weather. October is always a bit iffy, but once in awhile you can strike gold in October as was the case with this hike up Uncompahgre the first weekend in October. I have been wanting to do this peak for a long time and was originally targeting September, but life sometimes gets in the way and October 7th was the only opening we had, so we kept an eye on the weather several days prior to heading out, and took off from Longmont early Friday with the intention of getting there early enough to tackle Nellie Creek road during the day, and maybe spending a nice afternoon exploring around the area before hitting the peak on Saturday.

Best laid plans...after a blowout on I-25, and the need to replace all four tires on that vehicle, we were now pretty late in the afternoon getting out of Denver. So by the time we got to Nellie Creek road the sun was getting ready to set, and the last two miles of Nellie Creek were done in total darkness. I had read up a bunch on Nellie Creek and after seeing that a 2WD Tacoma had made it, I figured my 2001 Tahoe would be ok. A note here on the road, it is really pretty rough and there are some pretty tight turns with large rocks sticking out everywhere. We had to take our time for sure, being in the dark didn't help, and I think I scraped two times on the way up, but if you have decent clearance (think stock 2001 Chevy Tahoe) then you will probably do ok. I had it in four low most of the time which made it possible. Granted, it would have been nice to have some more clearance, but we did alright just taking our time. Stream crossings were not a big deal this late in the season. Ryan's truck (also stock chevy) had just enough more clearance than my tahoe that he didn't touch at all.

We camped about 1/4 mile shy of the trail head, there are some great spots up high near the trail head for camping, and the next day we enjoyed the scenery around the camp, was a bit dark to enjoy it at night (no moon either). Had a good dinner and then tried to get some sleep, I think the overnight low was in the upper teens so it was pretty cold, but no snow or rain. After a restless sleep, we woke up as the sky started to lighten. We were not too worried about an early start since the weather looked great all day and really the trail isn't that long, so we took our time to break camp, eat some breakfast and then make our way to the trail head. The last quarter mile to the trail head was more of the same rough road, but it was lighter now and easier to manage. This is where we struck gold as fall colors were in full swing, but the weather was clear and beautiful as shown in the pics below.

We did run into some snow patches further up from the previous weekend's snow fall, but for the most part the trail was dry. I did slip one time and ended up on my backside, but for the most part the trail was clear. The funny part was that the surrounding peaks appeared to have more snow on them, which I thought was interesting. The view from the ridge was incredible as you looked back towards unnamed point, and then further south into the San Juan range, the peaks just go on and on.

Towards the top of the ridge after the crux (which is really just a fun little spot where you can put your hands on the mountain if you want to) then you get the really good views of Wetterhorn and other peaks west of Uncompahgre. After the crux it is a pretty quick little hike to the summit where you finally get the good views north, although the better views are to the south, still the cliff edges are pretty impressive on this one for sure.

Heading back down was great, we were not in any hurry, the weather was perfect the entire day. We met some really nice folks along the way, but it was late enough in the season that it felt like we had the peak mostly to ourselves. Met one fella from back east who was planning to hike the peak the next day, he had just done Sneffels the day before, and was scouting out Uncompahgre. Had a great chat with him, was out here by himself, and does it every year, and the guy was over 70. I hope to be doing this into my 70s for sure but will see how it goes, my knees are always pretty sore after hiking, and I am only 49, so hats off to you buddy, you are my inspiration.

Overall I think Uncompahgre is in my top 10 for sure. The day was clear and gorgeous. The temps were perfect for hiking. Had good company, and spent a day in the San Juans, how much better could it get? Beginning to end total hiking time was just over 6 hours. It was nice not to have to rush. Hoping to return to the San Juans next year I think to knock out some others around Lake City.