Geneva Mountain (12,344) by Brian Schultz Thursday July 24,2025

Roundtrip mileage: 8.25 miles from Guanella Pass
Elevation gain: 1,425'
Start to finish: 4 hours 50 minutes

Guanella Pass now has many signs stating "no parking" along the road on both sides and tickets are being issued as of today. I was thankful to find a spot in the upper parking lot because tourists and Mt Bierstadt climbers often fill up both lots early. Geneva Mountain has a trail nearly to its summit and begins a short walk (south) from the parking lot to the east side of the road. The excellent trail (photo 1, photo 2) is marked as the Rosalie Trail #603.

I began at 7:30 AM under sunny skies. The Rosalie Trail soon turns left at a junction but the trail to Geneva continues ahead briefly as a double track. It fades in a few area but the route is obvious on terrain that's mostly tundra. Geneva Mountain can be seen all along the trail as the farthest peak.

When I gained the summit, or what I thought was the summit, it was still a short distance to the actual summit. Gotta love false summits! I arrived at 10:05 and stayed on top for 20 minutes. On my descent, I was surprised to see two women closing in on the last stretch to the top. One had climbed just one fourteener prior and the other hadn't climbed any peaks. They simply wanted to avoid the crowds on the fourteeners and climb other peaks.

When I was halfway back to Guanella Pass another woman was running the trail. I didn't expect to see anybody on the trail today and now there were three. And when I got back to the Rosalie Trail junction, two families with young kids were admiring the scenery from the trail. Maybe I shouldn't have been surprised since the trail is so accessible and easy from Guanella Pass. I arrived back at the parking lot at 12:20. This fun peak wrapped up my July climbing trip.