Hayden Mountain North – 13,131

RT Length: 6.51 miles

Elevation Gain: 3534’

I parked at the Hayden Trailhead at Crystal Lake and was on the trail at 6:45am. This is a very popular trailhead, especially during the fall color season. There’s room for about 40 vehicles if everyone parks nicely, but this area does fill up. The beginning of the trail is obvious, marked by signs and a gate.

Before you start your hike, you should take a look at where you’re going. There are plenty of game trails to get you there, but that’s just the problem: There are SO MANY game trails, it’s easy to go the wrong way. I’m sure most of them meet up at times, but it’s a good idea to know where you’re going. Here’s the overall route to treeline:

I took the well established trail around the lake, then looked for the obvious avalanche slide area. There are two or three trails that pick up here and lead you into the trees.

The hardest part about this hike is making it to treeline. I picked up the most solid game trail I could find and followed it as it switchbacked up to Half Moon Basin. Every time I came to another game trail (there were dozens) I tried to follow the most established one. I was heading west until I hit 13125’, then I headed north to treeline.

Once above treeline, the rest of the hike was straightforward, but don’t be fooled by all the game trails here as well: They don’t lead to the summit. Also, I saw a ton of deer this morning, and a few bighorn sheep, which are most likely responsible for all the trails. I followed the tundra up this drainage

At the top of the drainage I needed to get up this little ridge. There was a game trail to the left I took to get there

From here I knew I could go either left or right. I chose left to make it to the ridge, as the right side had a gully and I’m not a fan of gullies (although on my way down I saw there looked to be a game trail up the right side of the gully, so it probably wouldn’t have been too bad). Here’s what going left (west) looks like:

Now I was at the base of the ridge. I hiked up the tundra slope, then followed the ridge northwest as it became manageable scree. This was all class 2.

Now I was on top of the ridge. I turned and followed it north to the summit. This was rocky, but the route was obvious and all class 2. Stay below the ridge proper, on the class 2 terrain. I took the third gully to the right. All of the gullies went, and they are all easier than these pictures make them look.

From the top of the gully I could see the summit. It was an easy hike to get there

I summited Hayden Mountain North at 9am

Hayden Mountain North:

Hayden Mountain North was my only peak for today, so I turned around and re-traced my steps. First, the rocky section headed south, down the gully and back to the ridge:

Then the scree/talus ridge down to the tundra

I now made my way back to the drainage

And followed it back to treeline

Once at treeline I had to find my access trail. This was more difficult than I’d imagined, but I kept heading south/southeast and I came to it.

Back on a robust game trail, I followed it back to the trail I knew was below me that would lead back to Crystal Lake. A note about this trail going down: It’s steep, and I was sliding on the small rocks on the trail. While I had no problems hiking up, I had to take it slow as I descended so as not to slip and fall down.

Back on the main trail, I followed it back to the trailhead

I made it back to my truck at 6:45am, making this a 6.51 mile hike with 3534’ of elevation gain in 4 hours.

On to the next trailhead!