Antora Peak (13,269) by Brian Schultz  Monday July 23, 2018

Roundtrip mileage: 6.4 miles from FR 861 (near town of Bonanza)
Elevation gain: 2,560'
Start to finish: 6 hours
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

Tim and I drove separately from Salida to the trailhead. We drove Hwy 285 south to Road LL56, west on LL56 toward the town of Bonanza, turned left onto FR 861 before the town, and north on FR 861 to a switchback on the road east of Antora Peak. The switchback is the starting point and has room to park several vehicles. My GPS was helpful in confirming this location because there are lots of old roads in the area. Road LL56 and FR 861 are good two wheel drive roads so passenger cars shouldn't have a problem with the roads.

We began at 6:30 AM following an old road from the switchback parking area for a ways before leaving it to bushwhack through the trees. The bushwhack was straightforward and easy and our route stayed east of Slaughterhouse Creek. We ascended grassy slopes (photo 1, photo 2) to the saddle northeast of Antora. Since Antora was our only peak for the day, we took our time and stopped regularly (photo 3, photo 4). We reached the saddle at 9:00 and the summit at 10:00, and took a leisurely 30 minute break on top. There are great views from the summit, especially of Mt Ouray to the north.

Our descent began at 10:30, and at 12:30 we were back at our trucks. Easy day today.