Montana Mountain (10,948) by Brian Schultz Tuesday July 19, 2016

Roundtrip mileage: 1.85 miles from Elk Park
Elevation gain: 575'
Start to finish: 1 hour 15 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese and Brian Schultz

We didn't get out from the backpack yesterday until nearly 5:00 PM. It was a long drive from Crestone to Central City, where we'd booked a hotel reservation well in advance, and the I-70 Eisenhower Tunnel shutdown at Dillon made the drive even longer because we had to drive over Loveland Pass.

When we arrived late in Central City, we lost interest in getting up early for a long day on the peaks. So we decided to climb an easy peak, especially with the not great weather forecast, and enjoyed the rare opportunity to have a breakfast at the hotel before departing.

From Central City, we drove north on Eureka St, intersected the Apex Valley road, and continued to the small townsite of Apex. We turned left on Elk Park road (formerly Mammoth Gulch road), continued over a ridge, and dropped down to scenic Elk Park. A short distance up the road is a parking area on the right side of the road and we parked there. We walked back down the road to a 4x4 road, the start of our ascent of the peak.

We began at 10:40 and were on the road for only a few minutes when we encountered "No Trespassing" signs. So we departed the road and bushwhacked on easy terrain to Montana's summit and arrived on top at 11:20.

There are surprisingly nice views from the summit. Even though the weather was holding nicely, we departed fifteen minutes later and bushwhacked straight down the slopes to the road. We reached our parking area at 11:55. This easy peak is a great alternative when the weather forecast is questionable or a long day of climbing isn't appealing.