{"id":591,"date":"2018-07-05T14:54:48","date_gmt":"2018-07-05T14:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/philturk.net\/?p=591"},"modified":"2025-11-29T00:40:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-29T00:40:21","slug":"ellingwood-point-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philturk.net\/index.php\/2018\/07\/05\/ellingwood-point-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"Ellingwood Point, 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>Date: July 4, 2018<\/li>\n<li>Partner: none<\/li>\n<li>Height: 14,042 feet<\/li>\n<li>Range: Sangre de Cristo<\/li>\n<li>Route: North Ridge via South Zapata Creek (Class 3)<\/li>\n<li>Overall Distance: 11.5 miles<\/li>\n<li>Elevation Gain: 5,500 feet (TH to summit)<\/li>\n<li>14ers climbed: 19\u00a0separate climbs<\/li>\n<li>14ers remaining: 34<\/li>\n<li>Road Condition to Trailhead: The dirt road to the South Zapata trailhead is 3.5 miles from CO-150. \u00a0Any 2WD car can make it if they take it slow over the rocks and ruts. \u00a0There is plenty of parking at the trailhead.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This trip marked my first 14er of 2018. \u00a0I had originally meant to backpack several miles up the trail the evening before in order to get a head start the next day. \u00a0Alas, on the drive down to Alamosa from Denver, I had to take substantial detours to avoid the 11,000 acre Weston Pass fire. \u00a0It was already sunset by the time I pulled into Alamosa, so I decided to car camp instead.<\/p>\n<p>There is a no-frills campground run by the BLM right at the trailhead (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fs.usda.gov\/recarea\/riogrande\/recarea\/?recid=74116\">Zapata Falls Campground<\/a>) that is perfectly located to do this hike. \u00a0I watched some thunderstorms rolling in off in the distance for a few minutes, quickly pitched my tent, and then settled in for a few hours of sleep.<\/p>\n<p>I hit the trail at dawn, as the Great Sand Dunes were reflecting the first rays of the morning sun. \u00a0Pay attention when you are walking out of the trailhead not to take the side trail to Zapata Falls. \u00a0Otherwise, it is a brisk 4-mile hike up to South Zapata Lake (3,400 ascent). \u00a0The trail is clearly marked and I felt good as the temperature was cool.<\/p>\n<p>When I got to the lake, I decided to head up the C2 couloir to get on top of the headwall. \u00a0This is steep Class 3 pitch with no trail. \u00a0It was filled with loose talus and scree on top of hard-packed sand. \u00a0For every two steps forward, I took one step back. \u00a0As this was my first 14er of the season, I was not in the tip-top shape I wanted to be in, so I crawled up to the top of the headwall and was a bit tired. \u00a0If you attempt this route, be sure to make a note of where you are so that you don&#8217;t inadvertently head down the much more dangerous Crossfire couloir on the way back.<\/p>\n<p>From here, the route to the summit was plainly visible. \u00a0However, again no trail was evident. \u00a0I headed along the spine of the headwall to the east and picked my way as best as I could through tons of small rocks. \u00a0As the headwall rose, it bended to the south. \u00a0The sun was up in full force now and I stopped frequently to get water and rest. \u00a0When I got to a large prominent outcrop of rock, I tried skirting it to the right and it became dangerously steep. \u00a0STAY TO THE LEFT! \u00a0I backtracked several hundred yards, and got on top of the spine. \u00a0Even though there was massive exposure to the left (a 2,000&#8242; + drop-off), I ignored it since the going was much easier. \u00a0Pulling myself up with a few good handholds here and there, I was able to get onto the summit.<\/p>\n<p>From the top, I could see three other 14ers in the Sangre de Cristo mountain range. \u00a0There were several active fires I could see billowing smoke to the southeast and from time-to-time an airplane or helicopter would approach them presumably to drop water. \u00a0With the exception of a bighorn sheep, the entire time I had been hiking, I had not had any company until now &#8212; \u00a0a young couple from the university in Alamosa who had come up a different route.<\/p>\n<p>Coming down entailed backtracking, slowly picking my way through the endless rocks. \u00a0Even then, a few times I lost my footing coming down the C2 couloir and took a hard fall. \u00a0Had I not had my hiking poles, it would have been miserable. \u00a0I was really relieved to make my way back to South Zapata Lake and get back on defined trail. \u00a0By now, I had been frequently drinking water to the point where I had to carefully ration out what I had left for the remainder of the hike. \u00a0When I got to the car, I guzzled a very warm bottle of water I had tossed in the backseat \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<p>There are a few spots of ascent heading back to the trailhead, so all told, I would put the total ascent on this hike at 6,000 feet. \u00a0The Class 3 designation is appropriate. \u00a0If you are in great shape and move along, you could probably do this trip in 6 hours. \u00a0If you are in reasonable shape and take a few stops for picture and snacks, then it will take you around 9 hours. \u00a0I would not recommend this climb to someone who is not in shape nor as a first 14er. \u00a0If I had to give it a 14er difficulty rating, I would say somewhere around a 6.5, maybe a 7, would be appropriate.<\/p>\n<p>If you like solitude, adventure, remote country with big mountains, and camping options, then you should try this route.<\/p>\n<div class=\"photonic-flickr-stream photonic-stream \" id=\"photonic-flickr-stream-1\">\n<div id=\"photonic-slideshow-flickr-1\" class=\"photonic-slideshow splide default title-display-tooltip photonic-slideshow-adapt-height-width\" 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src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/1830\/42497637334_eebca26780_m.jpg?w=474&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\">\n\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t<li class=\"splide__slide\" tabindex=\"0\">\n\t\t\t<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/1810\/43166448242_7dc7b0b9a5_m.jpg?w=474&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\">\n\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t<li class=\"splide__slide\" tabindex=\"0\">\n\t\t\t<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/1825\/28346680397_1d513dc95a_m.jpg?w=474&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\">\n\t\t<\/li>\n\t\t<li class=\"splide__slide\" tabindex=\"0\">\n\t\t\t<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/1808\/28346678077_db70896c2f_m.jpg?w=474&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\">\n\t\t<\/li>\n\t<\/ul>\n\t<\/div><!-- photonic-slideshow-thumbs -->\n<\/div>\n\n<\/div><!-- .photonic-stream or .photonic-panel -->\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Date: July 4, 2018 Partner: none Height: 14,042 feet Range: Sangre de Cristo Route: North Ridge via South Zapata Creek (Class 3) Overall Distance: 11.5 miles Elevation Gain: 5,500 feet (TH to summit) 14ers climbed: 19\u00a0separate climbs 14ers remaining: 34 Road Condition to Trailhead: The dirt road to the South Zapata trailhead is 3.5 miles &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/philturk.net\/index.php\/2018\/07\/05\/ellingwood-point-2018\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Ellingwood Point, 2018<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":593,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[3,22,7],"class_list":["post-591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-colorado-14er","tag-ellingwood-point","tag-philip-turk"],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phk2e1-9x","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philturk.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/jpg05-copy.jpg?fit=680%2C510&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philturk.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philturk.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philturk.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philturk.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philturk.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=591"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/philturk.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1410,"href":"https:\/\/philturk.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/591\/revisions\/1410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philturk.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philturk.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philturk.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philturk.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}