Ascent of Black Mountain on 2018-06-09Other People: | Solo Ascent Only Party on Mountain | Date: | Saturday, June 9, 2018 | Ascent Type: | Successful Summit Attained | Motorized Transport to Trailhead: | 4x4 Vehicle | Peak: | Black Mountain | Location: | USA-Colorado | Elevation: | 11654 ft / 3552 m |
Ascent Trip Reportthe attached track is MUCH better than ken jones' driving directions. i compared his directions on the way out... and i nearly turned around to go back out the way i came in. with the attached track you can get to within ~2mi of the "trailhead" before you need 4wd. it's rough for the final 2mi only, whereas ken's approach was rough pretty much all 16 miles.
i discovered this by accident: i was on CR-2 attempting to access waugh mountain from the north, i was trying my luck. but the stirrup ranch has negative signage on the roads which go through the ranch... had i looked at sat view i wouldn't have attempted this at all.
fortunately i had also loaded black mountain into the app and had enough maps to see some roads leading up to the ridge where ken's track starts... so i headed that way. i was at first encouraged because there is a sign saying "public lands access" as you turn north in USGS section 12. i was hoping to take the 4wd road up to the ridge, but that road is signed "stirrup ranch no public access" as well. grr. however there is a road not on the USGS map, going west, which connects with the appropriate road networks. yay.
the only difficult section of this drive comes after you turn east at the intersection at 10200': it goes downhill briefly, then 4wd is necessary to climb the steep hill.
expect ~1h driving one-way for this approach.
ken's "trailhead" is down a pretty faded side road, you could park almost anywhere... i drove as far as i could. i followed ken's hiking track.
the summit has 180 degree views to the north, off the cliffside. the south is blocked by trees. there's a US flag at the summit. the register has far more entries than you'd guess based on the peakbagger + LoJ ascents. i could see a few footprints here and there near the summit, but there isn't a well defined trail.
p.s. i added the missing road segment to openstreetmaps. |
Summary Total Data | Total Elevation Gain: | 920 ft / 280 m | Extra Gain: | 50 ft / 15 m | Round-Trip Distance: | 3.2 mi / 5.2 km | Route: | ken jones track | Trailhead: | 10834 ft / 3302 m | Route Conditions: | Open Country | Weather: | Pleasant, Breezy, Clear | Ascent Statistics | Time: | 53 Minutes | Descent Statistics | Time: | 48 Minutes | GPS Data for Ascent/Trip
GPS Waypoints - Hover or click to see name and lat/long Peaks: climbed and unclimbed by Dean Gaudet Click Here for a Full Screen Map Note: GPS Tracks may not be accurate, and may not show the best route. Do not follow this route blindly. Conditions change frequently. Use of a GPS unit in the outdoors, even with a pre-loaded track, is no substitute for experience and good judgment. Peakbagger.com accepts NO responsibility or liability from use of this data.
Download this GPS track as a GPX file |
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