Before venturing into the Snowmass Wilderness for our four day backpacking adventure, we needed to spend some time acclimatizing. Gothic Mountain was the perfect day hike. Starting around 11,000 feet and peaking at 12,500, this climb would give us enough exposure to high-altitude to help us over the next several days in Colorado.
The early morning road up to Gothic Mountain. That is the peak straight ahead.
The trail system around Crested Butte is impressive.
Crested Butte is called Colorado's wildflower capital. So far, this trail lived up to the name.
The trail started with some easy climbing through rolling hills covered in wildflowers.
Lots of dogs on the trails out here.
Wildflowers seemed to cover almost all of the lower mountains.
Gothic Mountain. We were heading straight up to that summit.
The trail descended into some pine forests before the climb to the peak.
This was a seriously steep hike. No switchbacks.
From Gothic Mountain we were able to see Maroon Peak and the mountains we would be hiking through the next day.
False summit. Storms were brewing so we were in a hurry to reach the summit. Although hurrying on an almost vertical trail at high altitude wasn't really hurrying at all.
We reached the false summit. You can't tell because we're faced towards the blue skies, but behind me the dark clouds had rolled in and the few people at the summit were scurrying back down before the storms hit.
Amazing views in every direction.
Stopping to admire more flowers on the hike back down.
Back to the tree line. The storm never really hit us, but better to be safe than stuck on the summit during a lightning storm.
The road back into town.