Backpack to Castilleja Lake area in the Weminuche Wilderness, July 1-3 2003

Click on thumbnails to see 800x600 pictures.  Maps from DeLorme TopoUSA.

The Endlich Mesa trailhead is only 30 miles from our house (and only 20 as the crow flies), but as the final ten miles are on a very rough dirt road, it took nearly 90 minutes to get there.  The trailhead's at 11,600 feet -- nearly at treeline -- and as soon as we got out of the truck we felt the cool high-elevation breeze, a welcome change from the blazing heat in town.

The first several miles of the trail were relatively flat, with occasional great views down into the drainages of the creeks that feed the Vallecito.  We saw one large group of people hiking out, the only people we saw until we were nearly back to the trailhead ourselves.  Eventually we broke across a little saddle and could see the big mountains to the north: the high thirteeners and the three fourteeners (Eolus, Windom, and Sunlight) in this part of the Weminuche.

Shortly after we crossed to the other side of the saddle, the trail split in two.  One part continued along the side of the ridge we were contouring along, at least as far as the flanks of Mt. Sheridan; the other part headed down toward City Reservoir.  (Neither trail matched the one on our map!)  Since descending to the lake would mean losing nearly 2000 feet of altitude that would need to be regained on the way up to the Castilleja Lakes, we opted to take the high road.  This worked beautifully and gave us several more lovely views down into the Vallecito Creek drainage -- until the trail ran out.

Oh, well.  The mountainside showed many signs of heavy usage by elk and deer, and we quickly picked up a game trail that continued around Mt. Sheridan.  We even saw, at different times, two bucks and a doe.  When one game trail faded, we bushwhacked until we found another, and although it was tough going on the steep hillside we eventually made our way to the proper drainage where we intersected the real trail.  This led us to the lower Castilleja Lake, in a picturesque spot below Mt. Emerson, and after a little huffing and puffing and enjoying the view, we scrambled up to the upper lake.

It had been a strenuous 7 hours of backpacking, mostly off-trail and all at high altitude, and I was exhausted by the time we got to the upper Castilleja Lake.  I plopped myself down to read, while Britt busied himself setting up the tent and catching dinner.  After a nice trout-and-Thai-noodle dinner (not to mention hot tea and ibuprofen), we went to bed, snuggling deeply into our down sleeping bags.

The next morning, my legs had recovered, so I suggested that we climb Mount Valois, the cliffy 13,185-foot mountain that forms the backdrop of the upper Castilleja Lake.  The topo map showed that we could do it by climbing the southern slope of an unnamed peak to its south, then following a knife-edge ridge to the broad summit of Valois.

The climb was steep but doable, and we got a great view of the upper Castilleja Lake where we were camped (our tent is not discernable in the photo, but it's near the "top" of the largest of the visible lakes).  We also got to look at the cliffs up close and personal; if these cliffs were close to town rather than a hard days' hike away, they'd be well known in the rock-climbing community.  Beautiful corners, cracks and edges, hard, solid rock, lots and lots of potential lines, and a tremendous view from the top -- what more could you want?

The ridge to the summit was gorgeous, flat slabs of granite like a sidewalk in the sky, and we were soon on the top.  The map had indicated that there had been mining activity on Valois -- Britt thought he remembered that an outfit had helicoptered in equipment in the 1970's, only to abandon the site a year later when it proved too costly, but no trace remained other than a few timbers.

From there another ridge connected to Florida Mountain, a 13,076-foot peak above Lillie Lake, the highest headwaters of the Florida River (and Durango's city water supply).  This ridge was less sidewalk-like, with quite a bit of large, loose rocks, and we had to skirt one cliffy spot.  We found ample evidence of old mining on some quite unlikely spots along the ridge -- drilled core holes, wires, bolts, timbers, and so on.

We followed a trail down from Florida's summit to Trimble Pass, where we left the trail and walked down to Lillie Lake.  Britt tried to tempt the trout (with little success) while I basked in the sun and looked at pretty rocks and wildflowers.  Then we hiked back up to meet the trail and continued back along Silver Mesa.

Silver Mesa was named by prospectors, and there are many old mines and bits of mining equipment still there.  We're happy that insufficient silver was found to make it worthwhile, because it's a beautiful place that deserves to be left as wilderness.  We poked around the mining detritus and enjoyed the lovely scenery.

We descended off Silver Mesa to Lake Marie, then had to climb again to make it back to our campsite.  Too bad we couldn't just fly across the valley!

It had been a long day of hiking, but we still had plenty of daylight left by the time we returned.  Britt fished for dinner again, I read again, and we both enjoyed the alpenglow on the mountaintops as the sun sank behind the western ridges. 

The next morning we rolled out of our sleeping bags as soon as the sun was on the tent, and started our return to civilization.  This time we stuck with the trail, which descended quite steeply to City Reservoir and (despite our map showing the trail crossing at the rock dam and going up) for quite a distance below.  By the time our trail crossed the Florida River and turned upward, we were nearly at 10,300 feet -- our lowest point on the whole trip.  Since the highest point on Endlich Mesa is around 12,300 feet, we had 2000 vertical feet ahead of us.

Fortunately, the trail was nicely switchbacked (for the most part), and our packs were lighter than they were when we'd hiked in.  (For the most part; I was still carrying the meat we had brought in case the fish weren't biting.)  A few hours of trudging, and we were back up on Endlich Mesa; a few hours more, and we were back at the truck and ready to head to lower elevations.

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