Culebra Peak is privately owned and all hikes require advanced booking through the
Cielo Vista Ranch website.
A $150 fee is charged by the ranch and must be paid upon arrival or through their website, if/when they allow online reservations. In recent years, the ranch has allowed hiking from January through July but this can change each year, so please contact the ranch for availability.
1 and
2 are distant views of Culebra from the northwest. Once in the ranch (
3), much of Culebra is not visible until you are above 11,000' on the dirt road. Leave the ranch HQ and drive approx. 3.4 miles to reach a junction called "Four Way" -
4,
5 and
6. Continue 1 mile east up the road to reach the upper trailhead, at 11,650' -
7 and
8. There's no trail up Culebra, but you have two main options:
1) Just before dropping to the parking area, locate an old, closed road that heads east. Walk up the road and when it ends, continue along the north side of the slopes before turning south to follow the northwest ridge.
2) Or take a more-direct line by crossing the stream just below the parking area and hiking southeast up Culebra's northwest slopes. The 1st option is shown as a dashed line on the route photos+map but the 2nd option is more popular and described in this route description.
Walk southeast from the parking area, cross a stream, and continue southeast towards the slopes above -
9. Hike away from the stream and continue along a gentle ridge on the south side of the stream/creek -
10. Now above tree line, continue southeast toward the top of the slopes -
11, and
12. Reach the ridge crest at 13,350', near a large cairn
-
13 and
14. To the southeast, you can see much of the remaining route, but not the summit -
15.
Turn right and walk south past the large cairn, through some large rocks and descend a short distance down the ridge to reach a 13,200-foot saddle
-
16 and
17. Staying on the ridge, continue east toward a false summit -
18. There a couple of rough sections along the ridge but route finding is not a problem. Hike up through mostly-stable rock (
19) to reach the top of the false summit
, at 13,900' -
20. The true summit is less than 1/2 mile away -
21. Drop slightly, pass over a small hump, and ascend the final summit pitch -
22 and
23.
24 and
25 were taken on top
.