Taylor Mountain (13,651) & Mount Aetna (13,745) by Brian Schultz Sunday August 26, 2007
The standard approach for Taylor and Aetna is east of Monarch Pass in the town of Garfield. The trailhead is across Highway 50 from the Monarch Lodge and begins as a four wheel drive road (marked #230) to the left of some buildings where horses can be rented. Parking is prohibited at the trailhead. I parked in the Monarch Lodge lot and left a note inside the windshield saying I'd pay for parking, if required, on my return.
The weather was sunny when I started up the road at 6:30 AM and I made good progress to the cut-off road for Boss Lake. Garratt & Martin's book description says to continue a quarter mile past the Boss Lake junction to a trail but my friend Tim Briese's trip report says to go two-tenths of a mile to a marked side road. Tim's directions were right on and I followed the side road (230C) to the described Hoffman Park, elevation 11,635 ft., where the tracks of the old road faded. I began a bushwhack at 7:55 to the slopes below Taylor's ridge.
Instead of heading straight up I kept to a hit and miss trail (trending right) to the low end of the southwest ridge and arrived a half hour later on the ridge at 12,270 ft. After a short break it was easy hiking to just below Taylor's summit but rather than taking the logical route to the ridge, left of the summit, I went up and over large talus straight to the summit, fun class 3 climbing, and arrived on top at 9:30. The grass and rock summit offered nice views of fourteeners Shavano and Tabeguache as well as the thirteeners I climbed last month- Carbonate, Cyclone, and Grizzly. The weather was warm and sunny and I stayed over twenty minutes before heading down the connecting ridge to Mt Aetna.
The ridge to the Taylor-Aetna saddle was more rugged than I expected. I probably should've stayed on the ridge but instead dropped down on the left side and contoured over lots of mini ribs, which turned out to be demanding and slow. But once I reached the saddle it was an easy climb to Aetna's summit and I arrived on top at 11:00. I departed immediately in the quickly deteriorating weather but several minutes later turned around and went back up, just to make sure there wasn't a higher point I'd missed in my haste to get down. I was right the first time and interestingly, the clouds that were building so quickly minutes earlier were now just as suddenly breaking up. I hung around until 11:35.
Of the several descent choices at the Taylor-Aetna saddle, I took the highest one above the saddle on the Aetna side. It was a fun and fast boot-ski down the scree and after a short rest in Hoffman Park, I hiked nonstop back to the highway. I arrived at 1:30, walked across the highway and, thankfully, found my car still parked in the lot. I went inside and offered to pay for parking but the manager refused.
The peaks aren't all that challenging but they do have an elevation gain of nearly 5,000 feet. Roundtrip distance for the two is nine miles.
Trailhead to Taylor- 3 hours
Taylor to Aetna- 1 hour 8 minutes
Aetna to trailhead- 1 hour 55 minutes
Start to finish- 7 hours