Baldy Cinco – 13,389’

CO Rank: 330

9.1 miles RT and ~2530 gain

“Now that it is getting colder and a lot of the high country roads are snowed in, we should head back to Snow Mesa and hike Baldy Cinco; the weather will be good. Plus Kaiah can come with us since it’s mostly on a trail” I said to Kiefer. He agreed, and we booked our standby room at the Rainbow Lodge in South Fork for the evening before. It’s getting too cold to camp outside with the dog and off-season rates are amazing.

Two weeks ago we had been in Fort Collins hitting some new breweries for Kiefer, and after Kaiah lost a bootie on Cow Benchmark, I made my first trip to Scheels were she got a new puffy coat, and upgraded dog booties. Now she was all set for some more hikes with us, and the colder weather that comes with November.

We arrived in South Fork at what felt like midnight now that it is getting dark by 4:30 in the mountains and crashed for the night, grateful for a good forecast and that the trailhead was only an hour’s drive from us, on all paved roads.

My first experience with Snow Mesa was on the Colorado Trail in 2018, my mom and I camped at a saddle about 2 miles from the start of the mesa, and got an early start, because the wide open expanse is not somewhere you want to be in a storm.

Just as the mesa came into view, a coyote tried to attack Faith, my weimaraner, which got both of our hearts racing. We quickly reached the pond at the end of the mesa, and started the long hike across. The trail is so straight that you don’t feel you are making progress.

While it was still early in the day, we could see black clouds building in the distance, and they motivated us to move faster. Thankfully we reached treeline just as the first booms sounded by 10 am. After that I never wanted to be anywhere near the mesa with a bad forecast again.

My second experience was 2 years ago when Kiefer and I hiked Baldy No Es Cinco in mid April. I wasn’t feeling well due to my second Moderna shot, and quite frankly we probably should have turned around, because what should have been a 6-8 hour day ended up being 11 hours of hip deep postholing in snowshoes, complete with little black spots in front of my eyes.

Needless to say I was not particularly excited about round 3 with Snow Mesa and the challenges it might throw our way. Thankfully our return trip for the other Baldy, Snow Mesa showed me why it can be a beautiful place.

We headed out from the trailhead at Spring Creek Pass at 8:50 am, knowing we could get away with a later start with the forecast, and only one peak planned. Many people also loop in 13168 and 13505 but Kiefer is going to start section hiking the Colorado Trail next year, and I agreed to join him for a few segments, 2 of which will be 20-21 from Eddiesville to Spring Creek, so it made more sense for us to hit those peaks then, plus Kaiah’s maximum for a peak is about 10-11 miles RT and we didn’t want to push her too hard.

The trail starts across Highway 149 from the parking area and climbs moderately steeply through the drainage on the side of Snow Mesa. Most of the elevation gain from the trip was actually gaining the top of the Mesa at 12,200 feet. The trail had some snow but it was only a couple inches deep at most, and was of no consequence.

In the forest we saw 4 grouse hanging out on some fallen trees and as we got closer to the mesa top we encountered the only rocky terrain of the day, and also the many pikas that call this area home. One especially brave pika was so focused on his or her foraging that it was not bothered by our or Kaiah’s presence and got within 10 feet of her. Kiefer was able to take some amazing shots of the little eep while I held Kaiah’s leash tight in both hands. If that had been Faith there would have been one less pika below Snow Mesa, but Kaiah mostly watched it with curiosity.

After spending a good 10 minutes with our pika friend it was only a short jaunt to the mesa top. We continued on the Colorado trail until the 2^nd monster cairn and cut off across the mesa top towards the East Fork Cebolla Creek drainage leading toward the saddle between Baldy No Es Cinco and Baldy Cinco.

Here’s the thing about these peaks, they look really close to the Colorado trail, but they are not. It’s over a mile of cross country travel before you reach the saddle between the two peaks. While we were hiking towards the saddle a group of small black and white birds (maybe lark bunting, but I don’t know birds) were resting in the tundra and they flew up and around Kiefer twice. We both have never had maybe 100 birds swarm around us, and it was a unique experience. The hiking was easy and the miles went quickly and soon we were ascending the final steeper, but still easy 400 feet to the summit.

We took a short break on the summit to enjoy some snacks, but as it was quite windy we made a quick retreat back down the ridge to the saddle and contoured back out of the drainage towards the Colorado Trail in the distance. After reaching the Colorado trail the hike out went quickly and we returned to the car at Spring Creek Pass just six hours after leaving.

This summer has truly increased my appreciation of the wildness of the La Garita Sub-Range. They may mostly be long tundra strolls, but I have enjoyed spending time in such a remote area. Baldy Cinco may have been a somewhat unremarkable peak, but it was a great day out with Kiefer and Kaiah in one of Colorado’s more remote areas.

Some photos are credit to Kiefer Thomas.