East Spanish Peak (12,683')   by Brian Schultz    Friday  June 10, 2011

Roundtrip mileage: 8.9 miles from Wahatoya trailhead

Elevation gain: ~3,100'

Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

Difficulty in finding the correct roads to the trailhead has been reported and since we ourselves had some trouble finding them, the following directions should prevent driving around aimlessly on the local county roads:

In the town of La Veta, turn left on Virginia St (there's a Catholic church on the corner). Go one block and turn right on Birch St. Go two blocks to the stop sign and continue straight ahead as Birch St becomes CR 360. Start the odometer at this stop sign and follow CR 360, turning left at 1.2 miles, right at 1.6 miles, and arriving at 6.5 miles to CR 442. Turn right on CR 442 (a 4x4 road marked with a sizable sign identifying it as the road to Wahatoya trailhead) and follow it for an additional 2.2 miles to a spacious parking area and register.

We began at 7:10 AM, following the excellent trail for an hour to a junction at 10,250', and turned left on this trail leading to East Spanish Peak. Initial flat terrain yielded to steep forested slopes with the trail going straight up through the trees. Switchbacks sure would be helpful in this area but at least the relentless elevation gain eases when emerging from timberline.

After a short break we continued up talus on a winding ridge to the summit and arrived on top at 10:45. Skies were sunny overhead but most of the surrounding peaks, including West Spanish Peak, were in and out of clouds. Trinchera Peak and the other peaks along its ridge still had lots of snow blanketing their slopes. Those peaks had been scheduled as our original climb for today but when I drove past them on the way to Walsenburg last night I noticed the substantial snow cover and called Tim. Neither of us wanted to deal with potential snow issues so it was an easy decision to switch to East Spanish Peak.

Watching the clouds pushing up from the valley below was fascinating as they rolled up to the saddle of the ridge below and bounced back as if hitting a wall. We enjoyed our summit stay for 45 minutes and departed at 11:30, reaching the trail junction at 1:30 and the trailhead register at 2:20. This was an easy climb and a great fill-in peak.

Trailhead to summit- 3 hours 45 minutes

Summit to trailhead- 2 hours 50 minutes

Start to finish- 7 hours 10 minutes

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