Summiting Mount Sneffels in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado.

Mount Sneffels has been at the top of my Colorado bucket list since before I moved to the state. The pictures I had seen of the bright turquoise, alpine lakes nestled among the San Juan Mountains seemed unreal, and I had to know for myself if they were as beautiful as they seemed. ​

After two years of waiting and developing my backpacking and mountaineering skills, John decided that he would plan an entire week long adventure for us through the San Juan Mountain Range in southern Colorado, including a stop at Mount Sneffels!

You can read about our entire adventurous week in the Sneffels and Uncompahgre Wildernesses in this separate blog post here!

After staying a few nights in Montrose to acclimate to the altitude and wrap up some work items, we drove out to the Mount Sneffels Wilderness Area on Wednesday afternoon. 

From Ouray, we drove up Camp Bird Road until we turned onto one of the famous OHV pass trails, Yankee Boy Basin. We had been fairly warned and knew that my Jeep Cherokee might not make it up the road, but what we weren't told was that this was going to be one of the most scenic drives we would ever make in our lives. 

Driving up Yankee Boy Basin Road.

Our campsite on Yankee Boy Basin Road.

The narrow, 4-wheel-drive road twists and climbs thousands of feet up to the Mount Sneffels and Blue Lakes Trailhead, and eventually, the rocks, dips, water crossings, and sharp turns got to be too much for my precious car. We found a designated campsite about three miles from our destination, and even though we only made it about halfway up, it will go down as one of my favorite car rides ever. ​

We had driven off Yankee Boy Basin Road onto a side trail to find a spot, and it turned out to be near the old town of Sneffel’s ruins! We set up our camp with the most scenic 360 degree views of the mountains, and we spent hours exploring the small creeks and blooming wildflowers until nightfall.

Same campsite, different view!

John and Maria scouting out a deer in the field.

Wildflowers at the creek near our camp.

The remains of the mining town, Sneffels.

We called it a night as soon as the sunset so that we could get an early start in the morning. We hoped we could get on the trail and get to the summit of Mount Sneffels by sunrise, so we set our alarms for 2 a.m. and said goodnight before 9 p.m.

Surprisingly, the early morning wake up call wasn't as difficult as we thought. By 2:30 we were up and moving around our tent. We put on warm clothes, laced up our shoes, and managed to be on the trail at precisely 3:26 a.m. 

​It was pitch black out, but the moon was shining bright enough to guide us up Yankee Boy Basin Road to the Mount Sneffels Trailhead without us needed a headlamp. When we got to the trailhead, the sun was starting to peek out, and even though we couldn't see it, it was lighting up the sky with pink cotton candy clouds and illuminating the reflective snow on the nearby peaks. It was breathtaking.

Hiking by moonlight up to Mount Sneffels.

It took us exactly two hours to reach the trailhead. You can see, in the video below, that it was exactly 5:26 a.m when we arrived at the trailhead and signed our names in the log book!

The start of the scree field, officially on the Mount Sneffels Trail.

Once we were officially on the Mount Sneffels Trail, the road we had been walking on seemed like a piece of cake. The remaining 3 miles of trail gained about 2,500 feet in elevation and turned from a wide, dirt path to a narrow and unmarked rock scramble.

We had our dog, Maria, with us, and even though there were warnings about potential risks for dogs, we thought she could handle it because of her previous mountain climbing experiences. Once the trail turned into rocks though, we got a bit nervous about how she would handle the steep grade.

The trail quickly went from a gradual incline to a nearly straight up rock climb in less than a mile. For a while, we were the only people on the trail, so we could stop and take breaks without anyone passing by, but eventually, another group of two and their dogs passed us. Not long after they did, we started to have to climb the rocks.

Looking down on the trail we had come up in the dark. Still a mile or two from the summit.

This part got a little scary not only because we were grabbing at rocks on our hands and knees on a steep mountain, but mainly because the group in front of us knocked a decently sized rock loose and sent it whirling straight toward us. If they hadn’t yelled a warning as loud as they did and given me the two and a half seconds to move out of the way, I would have been knocked off the mountain side.

Once this terrifying moment passed and I gathered my composure after almost being crushed, we kept on climbing until Maria refused to keep going. The rock climbs and scree slides proved to be too much for her although her paws were healthy. The steepness really seemed to scare her, and we didn't want her to endanger anyone.

Looking back from the ridge / false summit.

John graciously offered to stop where we were, hold on to the dog, and let me summit first. According to our map we only had about .2 miles left, so we figured we would just trade off. We were lucky to have stopped when we did, because the last ascent was the hardest to climb.

Looking back on where we had walked up. The right side is where we would climb next.

​The last ascent features nothing but loose gravel until you reach a false summit, and it took me almost 30 minutes to get up it. Once I got to the first “top”, I faced the true Class 3 climbing part of the trail. ​

​To actually get to Sneffels summit, there is a huge 8 foot high rock wedge you have to climb over. I probably wouldn't have found the path or known to climb the rock if the other group in front of me wasn’t climbing back down from the peak. They helped me up and over and showed me the path, and from here out, I was on my own nearing the summit of Mount Sneffels. ​

The massive boulder we had to climb over. AKA "The Class 3 section"

The last few minutes of the climb were the coolest of all. I was able to turn around and look back on the entire climb I had just made, and it felt so rewarding to see how far I had come especially with the incredible mountain views surrounding me. It didn’t take long until I had pulled myself up to the tippy top of the mountain.

The view from the summit of Mount Sneffels!

Summit selfie on Mount Sneffels.

Standing 14,150 feet above sea level and looking down on the entire San Juan Mountain Range all by myself was a feeling I will never be able to explain. The hard hike, the early morning, the training hikes, and other 14ers led me to this point. I felt so strong and so proud of myself.

I didn't stay up at the top long, because it was super windy and John still wanted to make his way up. I signed the summit log book, snapped my pictures, took some videos, and started my descent.

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More views from the summit.

Found a summit sign inside the log box.

Making our way down.

The walk down was much scarier than the climb up simply because of the downward view, but it took only about half the time to get down. It took me and John each almost an hour to get from where our dog was, up to the summit, and back down. While John went up, I hung out and took in all the views and took some more pictures.

Eventually, we made our way back down the trail. It was around 8 a.m. and the trail was starting to get busy. Where we had been the only ones on the trail in the morning, there were now about 10-15 groups of people. It made the climb down a little more treacherous since we didn’t want to send any boulders flying down toward them.

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Looking up at the trail. (Not a view of Mount Sneffels)

Almost back down to Yankee Boy Basin.

Wildflowers along the trail.

We worked our way around the people and made it down safely to the actual trail. From here, the trail became an easy down hill walk that took us practically no time at all to get down especially once we were back on Yankee Boy Basin Road.
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Since we had hiked up in the dark, we hadn't been able to see much of the trail, but now that the sun was up, we were surrounded by wildflowers and serene views that stretched for miles and miles. I couldn't believe that all of this had been hidden from us before. It made me want to run through the fields singing and laughing. Our hike down may have been my favorite part. ​​

Views we could not see on the way up since it had been dark.

We got back to our campsite at 10:30 a.m. and felt so accomplished and satisfied with ourselves. We both could not believe how perfect our morning had been and how picturesque the entire area was. We sat and revelled in all of the glory of the San Juan Mountains until we fell back asleep for a mid-afternoon nap. We were both exhausted, happy, and proud that we had conquered Mount Sneffels.

If you want to see more from our entire week-long trip in Southern Colorado check out our YouTube video below!

Similar Links:
​San Juan Mountain Road Trip through the Sneffels and Uncompahgre Wildernesses 
Catching the Wildflowers in Crested Butte
Aspen Colorado Fly Fishing Road Trip