Continued...
Flat Top Mtn
Today we visited the Flat Tops Wilderness in Garfield County, an hour+ drive
south of Steamboat Springs where we were staying for the week. As the name
suggests, the Wilderness is a collection of high mesas reaching over 12,000ft,
created in 1975 and spread across three counties. Eric had been here once as a
teenager for an overnight camping trip in high school. Our goal was Flat Top
Mtn, the Wilderness and County HP with more than 4,000ft of prominence. It is
a relatively easy outing, 2,200ft of gain and less than 9mi roundtrip, much of
it on trail and the most delightful cross-country one can imagine.
Stillwater is the highest of three reservoirs built on the Bear River on the
northeast side of the Wilderness, with a number of popular campgrounds in the
surrounding Routt National Forest. We started from the
just below the reservoir's dam at a height already over 10,000ft, making for
cool temps. The water level in was currently quite low,
as in much of the American West this summer, but that didn't seem to bother the
and other creatures that lived along its edges. We followed the
across the dam on the east side of the reservoir
through damp, and past the . The
forested section didn't last long as the trail quickly climbs above treeline on
its way to a saddle between Flat Top and to the
southwest. From here, we to follow an on-again
off-again
along the leading to Flat Top's
summit. We spent an hour on the trail getting to the saddle, and a second hour
leading to the summit. Despite haze in the valleys
below, there were some in all directions, overlooking the
Wilderness area on three sides. We found no register in the large,
piled up at the highpoint. There were few clouds
mid-morning, and there was little need for us to hurry off. We
via the same route, taking a little less time for
the descent than we had on the way up. It wasn't yet noon when we returned to
.
Peak 8,140ft
We decided to check out this unnamed summit, not far off the road on our way
back. It is located on the west side of SR131 and the Yampa River and a few
miles north of Yampa. We had spied it on the morning drive, noting it looked
like a difficult volcanic plug, much like Rabbit Ears a few days earlier. We
turned off the highway onto Country Rd 21, then parked at a shooting range south
of the summit. We were the only vehicle at the range, quiet now. It looked to
be for public use by , so we went through the gate and
the ridgeline towards . We went over
well above the range, then made our way to the base of the
summit plug on its south side. The and
appeared to be vertical walls, leaving us the south side as our only option. We
class 3 rock for 3-4 minutes before coming to a halt about
30ft short of the summit. Eric had stopped a short distance
to see what I would do. Looking up, the had a crack
running up
about 12ft that would take an arm, but above that was a blanker section maybe
10ft high that I didn't think I could solo safely. I decided to stop where I
was. This one would be more fun with a rope for safety, I concluded, and told
Eric I was done. He had no desire to encourage me or try it himself, so we
to head to the car. We had had an enjoyable
morning and there seemed no good reason to spoil it with a mishap on this one...
Continued...