Stewart Peak (13,983′) | CO Rank: 55/637
Baldy Chato (13,401′) | CO Rank: Unranked
“Column Ridge” (13,795′) | CO Rank: Unranked
San Juan Range | La Garita Wilderness | Creede, CO
10/17/20 | 9.8 miles | 3,373′ gain | Class 1/2

For our last 13er trip of 2020, Allie and I had our sights set on Centennial 13er Stewart Peak. We booked a hotel in Gunnison and drove down Friday night, meeting up with Allie’s mom Peggy who joined us all the way from Kansas. We set out early Saturday morning for the Cebolla Trailhead. There are multiple ways to climb Stewart Peak, but it made the most sense for us to summit Stewart from the north, since we could easily tack on two unranked 13ers, Baldy Chato and Column Ridge. This ended up being a good route decision for us, but it was a long day above 13,000′.
We were on the Cebolla Trail by 8am. The trail leaves the dirt road and switchbacks into the forest above the East Fork of Los Pinos Creek. This area doesn’t seem to get much use. In fact, we didn’t see a single other person all day!


After about a 1/2 mile, the Cebolla Trail left the forest and struck out through a large patch of willows. The willows obscured the trail almost entirely, but occasional tall wooden poles led us through the maze.




Just after the willows let up around 12,500′, we left the trail and hiked directly up Baldy Chato’s slopes. From here, it was about 900′ to the summit on gentle tundra.

From the summit, we had a great view of the rest of our route. Next up was Column Ridge. We followed the long connecting ridge, avoiding some of the larger bumps. It was a long 1.5 miles, I was seriously dragging.





Near the top of Column Ridge, the terrain became rockier. We kept left (east) of the ridge to stay on grass as much as possible. Of the two summits that make up Column Ridge, the westernmost is slightly higher.





Peggy had decided not to summit Column Ridge with Allie and I, instead opting to head directly to the Stewart saddle. We quickly summited and then cut over to the saddle, avoiding the lower, eastern summit.

We found Peggy on the saddle and ascended the last 400′ up Stewart Peak together.




It was windy so we didn’t stay on the summit long. We hiked back down to the saddle and then cut below Column Ridge. We didn’t need to re-summit anything on the way out so we avoided as much unnecessary elevation gain as possible. There was however, about 150′ or so that we needed to regain to get back up and around Baldy Chato. It doesn’t sound like much but it felt like a ton after a long day.


Once up and over Baldy Chato, we retraced our steps back down the slope to the willows. It took a few minutes to figure out where to enter the willows, but eventually we found it and were on our way through the maze and back to the more obvious trail through the forest. We made it back to the car after quite a long time on trail and drove the two hours back to our hotel. I ended up getting a migraine from being up high for so long, so we cancelled our Sunday hiking plans to sleep in instead. We were all hoping I’d feel better after a little extra sleep and could still get one more short hike in on our way home.
Chelsea
Thanks for sharing another great hike with us!
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Thanks for reading 😉
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That was quite a hike. It is not surprising that you got a migraine.
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I don’t handle the altitude super well as it is, but this was an exceptionally long time above 13k’. At least the migraine was gone by the next morning!
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That’s gorgeous! I love when I can hike a bunch of peaks/ridgelines in one day so it sounds like such a fun hike!
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It’s such a cool area! And it’s in the middle of nowhere so doesn’t see much traffic.
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Nice photos and hike. I need to get back to that part of the country when I can do so. I have a relative that works at Mesa Verde so we use that as our base camp.
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Thank you! That’s awesome you have a relative at Mesa Verde. Such a cool place!
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Yes. He has worked for the National Parks for a few years so we are able to go to different parts of the Parks that he works.
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You guys are awesome! You are truly ‘Pursuing Balance Through Adventure’.
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Those are some really really neat ridge lines! This makes me excited for hiking summits with you this summer 🙂
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Yass!! I’m READY for summer and summits. You’re going to love it!
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Nicely done!
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Thanks! 🙂
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Column Ridge is a cracker…most impressed. Chelsea, you could have been in Scotland from what I could see of the upper part of that walk (other than the height difference of course). Didn’t realise you had ptarmigan over there too. I know what you mean about them “forgetting” to change plumage with the seasons. I’ve seen that here – same goes for the mountain hares – have seen them sitting beside the track believing they are invisible.
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It’s amazing how similar it looks to Scotland, isn’t it? Especially since they’re totally different elevations. This has always fascinated me!
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