Mt. of the Holy Cross Trip Report 08/29/2026

Report Type	Mini
Peak(s)	Mt. of the Holy Cross - 14,007 feet
Date Posted	08/29/2026
Date Climbed	08/27/2026
Author	jalexander

Holy Cross 11 year old summit
We're from Houston, TX, so we broke this up into a couple days. My 11 year old daughter and I departed the Half Moon trailhead about 9:30am on Wednesday 8/26/26. We got the last parking spot available, there was parking available on the road. We got back to the trailhead on Friday 8/28/26 about 11am, and the parking lot was full, folks were parking down the road. Up and over Half Moon Pass, and we camped at East Cross creek site 3 on 8/26 (a little ways off the trail, but very cool, and good access to creek for water). All the sites are well marked, Rocks on top of the site sign mean the site is occupied. We departed camp at 7:30am on 8/27 and summitted at 11am. There were about 6 other hikers at the summit with us. Stayed about 45 mins, and descended to camp site 3. We spent the night, and hiked back to trailhead on 8/28. Overall, great trail, super easy to follow. Large, well marked cairns the whole way above the tree line. The last 1000' is steep, but the "class 2" scramble was totally do-able for my 11 year old (and my feeble 45 year old body). Weather was perfect for us, had some thunderstorms threatening the night of 8/27, but they fortunately skipped us. Bugs weren't bad at all, some black flies at camp, but almost no mosquitos. To the couple from Colorado Springs that we met about 400' from the summit - Thanks for the conversation!, we needed some motivation and distraction right then. Y'all are awesome. This was a big one for me, my youngest kid's first 14er. I've done a 14er with each of my three kids now - all at 11 years old. Mt. Whitney with my son, Windom Peak with my other daughter. Personally, really awesome to finish that goal. Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

Holy Cross 11 year old summit

We're from Houston, TX, so we broke this up into a couple days. My 11 year old daughter and I departed the Half Moon trailhead about 9:30am on Wednesday 8/26/26. We got the last parking spot available, there was parking available on the road. We got back to the trailhead on Friday 8/28/26 about 11am, and the parking lot was full, folks were parking down the road. Up and over Half Moon Pass, and we camped at East Cross creek site 3 on 8/26 (a little ways off the trail, but very cool, and good access to creek for water). All the sites are well marked, Rocks on top of the site sign mean the site is occupied. We departed camp at 7:30am on 8/27 and summitted at 11am. There were about 6 other hikers at the summit with us. Stayed about 45 mins, and descended to camp site 3. We spent the night, and hiked back to trailhead on 8/28. Overall, great trail, super easy to follow. Large, well marked cairns the whole way above the tree line. The last 1000' is steep, but the "class 2" scramble was totally do-able for my 11 year old (and my feeble 45 year old body). Weather was perfect for us, had some thunderstorms threatening the night of 8/27, but they fortunately skipped us. Bugs weren't bad at all, some black flies at camp, but almost no mosquitos. To the couple from Colorado Springs that we met about 400' from the summit - Thanks for the conversation!, we needed some motivation and distraction right then. Y'all are awesome. This was a big one for me, my youngest kid's first 14er. I've done a 14er with each of my three kids now - all at 11 years old. Mt. Whitney with my son, Windom Peak with my other daughter. Personally, really awesome to finish that goal.

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

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