Inspiration hit me yesterday when I saw a post on Facebook by Visit Denver, the official travel and visitor bureau for the city (the Facebook post is at http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150243642020777.321503.178754795776, or you can swing by their website at http://www.denver.org/) talking about Stanley Peak being an easy hike only a little over an hour away from the city. I didn't have to go into work today - I was going for a hike!
After stopping off for a power breakfast at my favorite place for donuts, I was off. The directions posted on Facebook were right on and I was happy to see the overcast skies over Denver melt away to scattered puffy white clouds by the time I was heading up into the Rockies on Interstate 70.
The trailhead was located adjacent to the Henderson Mine, which is the world's largest primary producer of molybdenum. Molybdenum is essential for the production of high-strength steel alloys.
According to internet resources, there is a 15-mile elevated conveyor belt that carries the molybdenum ore from the Henderson mine to the ore processing site. The conveyor is both underground (passing beneath the Continental Divide through an old train tunnel) and above ground, though I did not see it today.
Just above is a view of the mine from near the summit of Stanley Peak. The mining operation's noise was audible during virtually the entirety of the hike I did today.
The trailhead was at an elevation of about 10,500 feet. I knew that the summit of Stanley Mountain was in excess of 12,000 feet, so a fair amount of climbing lay ahead of me.
The area still has a fair amount of snow in it for mid-July. Snowmelt runoff creeks were a common feature that I had to traverse from time to time as I made my way up the easily-followed trail. There were several points below the timber line where I had to make my way across snow drifts that covered the trail. (below)
The sounds of wildlife were all around, but I saw only a few animals - a squirrel and several birds. And bugs. I saw deer hoof prints and also what I thought appeared to be a pawprint of a dog or perhaps a mountain lion. (I didn't get a photo of this latter item, since I saw it soon after I started up the trail and didn't want to stop so soon to snap a pic. I figured I would be able to find it again when I was on the way down to take a picture of it - fat chance!)
About 1.25 miles into the hike there was a fork in the trail. (Pictured above - also note the audio clip I recorded at this point.) Luckily I was pre-briefed on which way I needed to go. I have to take issue with the "1 mile" distance to the peak from this point. My GPS begs to differ - it was probably at least double that. Perhaps 1 mile is as the crow flies, not counting the switchbacks and so forth that are part of the trail. I took a short break here. There were rushing streams of cold snowmelt not far away that provided a nice backdrop.
After that, I only made brief stops for photos or to make gear changes (add/remove clothing as the temperature dropped or climbed)
While termed "easy" by the Denver tourism folks, I was working quite hard at points to make the ascent. I don't think I would bring my kids out here to go up this trail - too steep and too long for them. It's not a technical climb at any point, but it does require a decent amount of conditioning to make it up (altitude acclimatization also helps - still a work in progress for me).
I was really happy with the hike. I wasn't sure how long it was when I started, and the approximately 7 mile round-trip was enough for me today. Look for more hikes in the near future.
