Mount Morrison Challenge

John Gillingham, the leader of my athletic club's outdoor fitness activities, presents our group with new challenges from time to time. This year, he discovered a challenging trail in Morrison, Colorado that has about 2,000 feet of elevation gain in 1.75 miles. The trail is located just off of Bear Creek Road at Red Rocks Entrance #4. John is planning a group hike but I decided to try the trail on my own on Monday, April 7th against John's advice. My husband also tackled the trail alone on Friday, the 11th.

My Solo Hike on the South Ridge Trail

Mount Morrison Trail Head

Before my hike, I read a bit about the trail on the SummitPost website. I also read blog posts about other routes to the summit, including the Dome trail, but the South Ridge trail is apparently the most popular and "socialized" of the trails. The morning I hiked the trail, the weather was overcast and in the 30's. There was a light covering of snow on the ground but the lower portions of the trail were just wet. Looking down near the start of the trail, you can see the cables that run along the trail as well as the view of Red Rocks. The first part of the trail was steep enough to make me breathe hard.

After about a third of a mile, I met a woman running down the trail. This runnable section of the trail did not last for long. Later, there were some great views of the foothills to the west.

As I hiked higher, there was snow on the trail and I was grateful for the shoe prints of the runner I encountered coming down. However, when I got to the clump of lichen covered rocks in the photo below, I could no longer see the trail or my predecessor's footprints. It was also starting to snow again and the ground was getting slick so I decided to head back down. Round trip, it took an hour and 47 minutes for my IN-COM-PLETE pass up Mount Morrison.

just below my turn around point

Kent's Solo Hike to the Summit

In the photo below, you can see how steep the trail is at the start and how beautiful blue the sky was compared to Monday. What a difference a few days makes! The next photo shows the view of the foothills on a clear day.

Steep!

Before Kent hiked the trail, I asked him to take pictures beyond my stopping point so I could see what I missed. Kent did not recognize the green rocks I photographed. He did, however, take a lot of pictures of rocks! I would guess that it was somewhere around here that I stopped. I can understand why Kent could not see the clump of rocks I asked him to look for! The third photo shows a rock wall that I did not see on my ascent.

When Kent finally got around the rocks, which required some scrambling, he saw what I missed - the helicopter pad near the site of a helicopter crash four years ago. There was also some scrap metal, possibly from the old electric cog railway that used to run up to Mount Morrison from Red Rocks. The funicular was built by John Brisben Walker, a Jefferson County visionary, in 1911. In the third photo, the tree that doesn't look like the others is a cell tower according to a man Kent met at the summit.

Fake Tree

The next photo is a view to the west from the helicopter pad. Kent also took a picture of one of our first spring wildflowers, the Sand Lily.

Scree area

Sand Lily

Mount Morrison

Kent said that the rocky section at the top is a challenge. It is rated a class two hike requiring the use of your hands to help you up. He completed the 3.5 mile round trip Mount Morrison challenge in one hour and 54 minutes.