Cottonwood Peak (13,588) by Brian Schultz Sunday July 13, 2008
Distance: 12 miles
Elevation gain: 5,400 feet
I took advantage of the favorable weather forecast and changed my itinerary to climb Cottonwood Peak. After an overnight in Alamosa I drove to the Hot Springs Canyon trailhead and started at 6:25 AM, anticipating no major difficulties on the route but carrying with Garratt & Martin's route description and a copy of Tim Briese's trip report just in case.
The trail was mostly easy to follow and finally, after three days of hiking and acclimatizing, I found myself making decent time, reaching the wilderness sign at 7:25, and the end of the fading trail in a meadow at 11,385' an hour later. The downed trees that Tim described in his trip report weren't as much an annoyance to me, hopping over them with a light pack was easy compared to some of the downed timber we've tackled with heavy backpacks, in particular on the Sunlight Creek and Vestal Creek trails.
At the choice of drainages in the meadow at 11,385' I turned right and headed up through the trees. Above timberline, it was an easy ascent up grassy slopes to the ridge, and much of the same from there to the summit. It was straightforward and I arrived on top at 10:40 under sunny skies.
The summit register was wet but showed five groups had signed in so far this year. I enjoyed the surprisingly grassy summit for 45 minutes, watching the clouds billow up and scrutinizing the Sangre peaks south to Electric Peak. Doing the ridge would've required a much earlier start but it was fun to look over and contemplate the possibilities. On the descent, I somehow managed to lose the trail below the high meadow but didn't backtrack because I figured to pick it up later. Before long I was thrashing about in the woods and gave up trying to rejoin it, and simply set a bearing for the bottom of the canyon.
I descended steep terrain and kept as much as I could to the open areas between the trees, and when I emerged into another clearing in the woods, staring right in front of me was the wilderness sign. That bit of luck saved a remaining bushwhack to the bottom of the canyon and now that I was on the trail again, I easily made it back to the trailhead, arriving at the parking area at 2:45. Losing the trail added about an extra half hour to the day, otherwise for a long hike this one was pretty easy.
Trailhead to summit- 4 hours 15 minutes
Summit to trailhead- 3 hours 20 minutes
Start to finish- 8 hours 20 minutes