FLAT TOP MOUNTAIN
12,354 ft.
June 23, 1998
By Tim Briese
There are several mountains in Colorado named Flat Top Mountain. The one I climbed is in the Flat Tops Wilderness Area, standing tall as the highest mountain in that range. I was on an annual family camping trip with some relatives, staying in the Stillwater Campground in the beautiful Bear River Valley west of Yampa. The mountain towered majestically above our camp just to the southwest, some two miles away, and it looked like a grand challenge to climb.
I set out early in the morning with my daughter Emily and drove a few miles up the road to the trailhead at the Stillwater Reservoir. This was the same trailhead from which we had embarked the day before when we hiked up to the Devil’s Causeway, but this time we took another trail in a different direction.
We headed to the south on the North Derby Trail and followed it uphill into the woods above the valley. Numerous banks of frozen snow lying in the woods impeded our progress somewhat, but we gradually worked our way around or over them. We had to watch carefully to stay on the trail because it was often hidden by the snow. After a while the woods opened up a bit and we hiked past a couple of beaver ponds before reaching the base of a steep slope of icy snow that we had to ascend to reach the slopes above. This was the most challenging part of the entire route, for we had to climb about a hundred feet up this slippery surface without the aid of an ice ax or any other tool. We tediously crawled upward, grasping bushes and rocks wherever we could. I wasn’t sure if we could make it, but after considerable effort we finally reached the top of the slope.
Once atop this slope we abruptly left the trees and found ourselves on open grassy slopes above timberline, at about 11,200 feet. We turned to the east and began to ascend long gradual slopes toward the summit, which lay about two miles away. As we climbed higher spectacular views appeared down into the Derby Creek drainage below to the south. Hooper and Keener Lakes glistened like sparkling jewels in the sunlight. A solid white mantle of snow still lay on the upper plateau of the Flat Tops above the basin to the southwest, and we could see a spectacular 200 foot waterfall pouring over a cliff at the edge of the plateau over a mile away. Water seemed to be everywhere in this beautiful land.
A chilly wind lashed against us as we hiked upward across the unprotected slopes but the exertion of the climb kept us adequately warm. We contoured around Point 11,665 and hiked steadfastly on up to the summit. The summit plateau was remarkably broad and gentle, perhaps a third of a mile long, with the highest point marked by a huge cairn that stood over six feet tall. We were treated to grand views from this fine vantage point, from the distant Elk Range far to the south to Longs Peak way off to the east. We looked down at the valley far below and picked out the campground where the rest of our family was camped.
After a short time on top we began our descent back down the windy slopes. It was great fun glissading back down the steep snow slope and a welcome relief to get back into the protection of the trees. The snowbanks in the woods were noticeably softer in the warmth of midday but were still generally firm enough to walk comfortably across. In rather short order we returned to the trailhead and headed back down the road. We hiked about nine miles and climbed 2300 feet of elevation gain on this fine outing. About 2 p.m. we returned to camp and told everyone there about the details of our adventure to climb the mountain that loomed majestically above.
