Mt. Culebra Trip Report
August 14, 2005. 14,047 ft. Laura Wilson and Mary Castine
Mary and I left Colorado Springs Saturday evening and headed out in a downpour towards the San Luis valley. The rain seemed like it would never let up. At Walsenburg we headed west to Ft. Garland, CO. The town of San Luis was south of Ft. Garland. San Luis is a sleepy little town in the middle of a ranching community. There is a sign proclaiming that San Luis is the oldest town in Colorado. We were very close to the New Mexico border. It was still raining when we arrived in San Luis and made a pit stop. We then drove thru the sleepy little town of Chamas and then headed up a very wet and slippery road to the Ciello Grande Ranch, formally known in most guidebooks as the Taylor Ranch. Access to Mt. Culebra is on private land. There is a well maintained road to the trailhead that starts at the Ciello Ranch. The ranch owners are allowing climbers access to Mt. Culebra for the price of $100 dollars. A bit embarrassing to tell people you paid money to climb a mountain in Colorado, but we were eager to add another peak to our "14r" total. Because of all the rain, the dirt road to the ranch was horrible with lots of slick mud, but Mary's superior driving skills got us to the outside of the gate where we planned to camp for the evening. Luckily we were able to sleep in the back of her Suburban instead of setting up a tent in the rain and mud. We were to meet a ranch employee at the gate at 6 in the morning. We settled in for the evening and attempted to get some sleep. The rain kept falling until after midnight. We were not optimistic about our chances the next morning of making it up the narrow, muddy road to the trailhead. The skies were clear when we got up at 5:00 the next morning and we could hear coyotes howling in the distance. Mary was pleasant and chipper as usual as I grumpily attempted to make coffee with my new stove. Other cars started showing up at the gate just before six and we made small talk. Our contact at the ranch showed up just after six and assured us that the road to the trailhead would be fine. We then drove to the main ranch house on a very muddy and slick road. Weren't sure we were going to make it a couple of times, but once again Mary's superior driving skills prevailed. We shelled out our $100 bucks at the ranch house. I believe there were around 16 climbers total that day . The road to the trailhead was just fine and very scenic. We started out on the trail just after 7:00 a.m. Mary headed out a few minutes before me on the proper trail to the left and I followed the main pack in the wrong direction down what looked like a road. After realizing our 1/2 mile mistake we headed left to catch the main ridge. Tons of wildflowers and beautiful skies. I ended up hiking with a very nice group of people from Boulder, Colorado.
We slogged up to the main ridge and the clouds started socking us in. No lightening or thunder so we kept heading up. I was the slow poke of the group and one of the Boulder gals - Debbie - kept checking back for me. There wasn't a well marked trail to the ridge that I was able to find.
Once on the first ridge we could get a view of the first false summit. The ridge looked a bit daunting with a dusting of stow, but wasn't too bad to climb. The rocks were a bit slick and we had to scramble over some large rocks in a couple of places. The climb was quite a bit longer and tougher than I thought it was going to be. I guess I was hoping for an easy day and thought Culebra would be similar to Sherman or Grays. No such luck.
I drug myself up to the false summit and was disappointed to find out that the summit was further away than I thought it would be. You still have to walk across another ridge and then up to the top. I was dragging as usual and the last climber to summit that day. Mary passed me on her way down and said she would wait on the ridge. I got to the summit about 10 min. behind my new friend from Boulder - Debbie. There were also about 7 other people still on the top. For some of the group, Culebra was their last 14r of the 54, and they were celebrating with some sparkling cider. Very nice bunch of people.
We all headed down in a group and it felt nice to be adopted into the Boulder climber's group as the rock was a bit slick in places on the way back. Seem to take forever to get down and we had to be careful of our footing. I slipped and fell on my rear-end a couple of times, but no major falls. No exposure to worry about though. The weather stayed cool with low clouds. Finally got the the car after 2:00 as it started to rain. A much longer day than I had anticipated, but enjoyed some fun hiking and beautiful scenery. I was tired, but happy to have climbed my 35th 14,000 ft. peak.
