By Gary Swing Trip Date: August 4, 1995. Report Written: December 15, 1998 Hiking Distance: 4.2 miles, round trip Starting Elevation: 12,830 feet Elevation Gain: 2,100 feet
General description: A short, moderate hike on easy terrain entirely above treeline.
One day in August, 1995, I set out to do a short, easy hike of Gray Wolf Mountain, Colorado's 190th highest ranked summit. Despite its proximity to Denver and easy access from two sides, Gray Wolf sees few visitors compared to its higher, neighboring mountains, Evans and Bierstadt.
In their book, "Colorado High Thirteeners: A Climbing and Hiking Guide," Mike Garratt and Bob Martin describe a route to Gray Wolf Mountain and Mount Spaulding from Guanella Pass to the west. This route crosses through willows and ascends grassy slopes. It is a ten mile round trip hike with 3,100 feet of elevation gain. I chose, instead, to do a shorter hike from the Summit Lake parking area on Mount Evans Road.
From Idaho Springs on Interstate 70, I drove south for 24 miles on the Mount Evans Road to reach the Summit Lake parking area. This road is closed during the winter season. From the parking area, I walked around the north end of Summit Lake to the saddle between Mt. Spaulding and 13,307-foot Mt. Warren. There, I turned left to follow Spaulding's straitforward east ridge up to its summit. The hike from Summit Lake to the top of Mt. Spaulding is one mile (one way) with 1,012 feet of elevation gain.
Despite the fact that Mt. Spaulding is higher than Gray Wolf, it is not a ranked summit on the standard list of Colorado's bicentennial (200 highest) peaks. It is considered to be a subsidiary summit of 14,242-foot Mt. Evans. Spaulding is separated from this fourteener's summit by 1.1 mile and a 262 foot drop from Spaulding's summit to the connecting saddle. The standard list of bicentennial peaks uses a 300-drop criterion from a lower summit to a connecting saddle with a higher mountain to define a separate peak. This criterion drops the fourteeners North Maroon and El Diente from the ranks of Colorado's 200 highest peaks, while adding Challenger Point. Measured both in terms of distance from its higher neighbor and the elevation drop from summit to saddle, Spaulding is more of a "separate" summit than either North Maroon or El Diente.
The hike from Mt. Spaulding to Gray Wolf was 1.3 miles with 582 feet of elevation gain. I descended the north slopes of Spaulding to a very broad saddle connecting the two summits at 13,020 feet. The broad expanse between the two mountain tops was very wet and muddy on the day I went. There were many small pools of standing water. There were scattered boulders across the terrain, and a large number of the mountain goats that frequent the Mount Evans area. I continued north up the gentle south slopes of Gray Wolf and ate my lunch on the summit.
Dark, ominous clouds were rolling in, so I made a hasty retreat back to Summit Lake. On the return hike, I headed back north across the Gray Wolf-Spaulding saddle, skirting left (east) of Mt. Spaulding at about the 13,520 foot level (500 feet higher than the saddle). I rejoined the east ridge of Spaulding for the descent to Summit Lake. As I came back down the ridge, I encountered six people heading up the ridge, with an imminent storm approaching. Although there were many people on the Mount Evans road that day, I only saw these six along my hiking route.
My notes from this hike didn't include times, but I would guess that it took about three hours for the round trip hike, which was done around mid-day. Together with Twining Peak north of Independence Pass, this is one of the shortest hikes of a bicentennial peak that can be done from a paved road. My Spaulding & Gray Wolf route involved 2,094 feet of elevation gain in a 4.2 mile round trip. A hike of Gray Wolf alone by my return route would have required about 1,770 feet of elevation gain in a 3.8 mile round trip.
Gary Swing