Summiting Mount Bierstadt on a Sunny Summer Morning

Bagging “14ers” is part of the hiking culture here in Colorado. There is no better feeling than standing atop a high mountain peak, knowing you just pushed your body up a grueling, early morning hike. Climbing them is almost addicting.

Mount Bierstadt was the 10th mountain peak over 14,000 feet that I was able to cross off Colorado's list of 58 peaks. My two girlfriends and I summited on Saturday July, 10th, 2021.

You can about other mountains I have climbed, including Mount Sneffels, Grays and Torrey, and the DeCaLiBron Loop on my Colorado Hiking Page!

6:00 am - Our arrival

​We arrived at the trailhead at 6:00 a.m. on the dot, and the parking lot was already full. We parked down the hill from the trailhead parking lot and walked up about a quarter of a mile up the road.

7:00 am - Starting the trail

It wasn’t until 7:00 a.m. that we actually started walking up the trail.

​The trail starts off with a very gradual incline for the first mile. The path traverses some wetland areas near the alpine lakes, so The Colorado 14ers Initiative has built bridges and walkways over the fragile environment to protect it and make it easier for hikers to cross. 

​There was one creek crossing that didn't have a bridge, but it was very easy to hop across. ​

After the water, the trail started to head up the mountain and progressively became steeper. The next mile of the trail remained above the tree line and was a lush green landscape. We walked through rows of short bushes before we broke out into vast fields of blooming wildflowers.

8:15 am - 2/3 of the way up, here come the crowds

​This was the point in the trail when we started to run into a lot of other people. I am not sure if the open view of the valley below distracted everyone or if everyone started slowing down because of the difficulty, but we were around hoards of people from here on out.

​We managed to get around them most of the time, but some points of the trail were very narrow, and we had to wait for groups to pass before we could continue. I have never seen this many people on any of the other 14ers I have hiked. It was a madhouse, and the problem became more common on the last mile as we walked through a scree and boulder field to the summit. ​

The path became more difficult to navigate as more rocks littered the ground. This caused people to slow down for the sake of safety, so things became very congested the higher up we hiked. Traversing the rocks wasn’t difficult to manage, since there was no climbing or scrambling required. We slowly continued up the trail and eventually reached the summit.

9:00 am - Reached the summit

The official summit of Mount Bierstadt is marked by a U.S.G.S marker stuck into a rock and sits 14,065 feet high above sea level. We found the marker and took our typical "14er sign" photos.

We only hung out at the summit long enough to take some pictures and videos. It was very windy and crowded, so we didn’t stay long.

9:30 am - Started the hike down

The descent took us just as long as the hike up, primarily because we stopped a lot to take pictures of the flowers and beautiful valley below. Now that the sun was out the views were even more spectacular!

12:00 pm - Finished!

We made it back to the trailhead at exactly noon. It took us exactly five hours to complete the entire summit hike, and when we made it back to the car, our trackers said we had walked eight miles. 

We hoped in the car happy and tired, ready to get home to some food and some rest. It was an incredibly successful morning, and it was so satisfying to be able to cross one more mountain off our lists!

Read about my other 14er experiences below:

DeCaLiBron Loop - Four 14ers in One
Mount Sneffels
Mount Elbert Colorado's Highest Peak