NOTCH MOUNTAIN
13,237 ft.
July 12, 2001
By Tim Briese
For many years I wanted to climb Notch Mountain in order to see firsthand the fabled snowy cross on the east face of Mount of the Holy Cross. The cross is a reclusive sight, and I had only glimpsed it from far away from the summits of other mountains. Notch Mountain is the finest vantage point from which to see the cross, and has been visited by thousands of pilgrims over the past century who wished to see this singular and stirring scene. This outing was to be my long awaited opportunity.
I left home at 4:25 a.m. as the first light of dawn was beginning to appear on the northeastern horizon. The weather looked rather marginal, and indeed, a few sprinkles fell from the partly cloudy sky as I drove into the mountains. I hoped to get to the trail and reach the summit as soon as I could in order to see Holy Cross in the most favorable conditions before thunderstorms began to build. I was pleasantly surprised to see a clear blue sky appear after I crossed the Continental Divide at the Eisenhower Tunnel. Just as I emerged from the west end of the tunnel I glimpsed what I thought was Holy Cross in the distance to the southwest. I had been through the tunnel dozens of times over the years, but I had never noticed this view before.
At 7 a.m. I started up the rough Tigiwon road into the national forest and reached the trailhead a half hour later. There were about twenty vehicles there already, but most hikers were apparently bound for the summit of Holy Cross up the Halfmoon Trail, while I was taking the less traveled Fall Creek Trail to Notch Mountain.
I hit the trail at 7:40 in the golden morning sunshine with my two labs, Allie and Jorie. The sky was clear and blue, and the woods had a damp freshness from a rain the evening before. Presently I passed a couple along the trail, and I noticed a camera tripod on the man’s pack, which told me they were probably bound for Notch Mountain as well. The trail contoured along the slope up the valley above Fall Creek, with occasional glimpses of the creek and ponds on the floor of the valley several hundred feet below. I clipped along on this easy stretch of trail, and covered the 2.2 miles up to the junction with the Notch Mountain Trail in just under an hour.
After a brief rest I started up the trail and followed the long, easy switchbacks upward. I soon reached timberline and was surrounded by the beauty of the Holy Cross Wilderness Area. I crossed gorgeous meadows filled with wildflowers with great views of the Gore Range and other mountains in the distance. The views got even better as I went higher, as I saw lakes in the valley below, and the Sawatch Range stretching off to the south. My two labs were thoroughly enjoying themselves, as Jorie ran about sniffing the trails of nimble marmots and pikas while Allie retrieved an occasional stick that I threw for her. By 9 a.m. the first wispy convective clouds of the morning appeared, and within 30 minutes they ballooned in size to cover a large portion of the sky.
I briskly hiked up the easy grades on the numerous switchbacks up Notch’s east slope, eager to get to the top. It was 2.8 miles with 1800 feet of elevation gain from the junction below to the summit ridge. At 10:05 I reached the top of the ridge and was greeted by a spectacular view as Holy Cross burst into sight to the west. Just over a mile away across the valley, the thousand foot high cross is indeed awesome to behold. Although much of the snow had melted out of it, especially in its horizontal arm, it was spectacular nonetheless. As with most of Nature’s beauty, it is much more impressive in person than it is in photographs.
Notch Mountain is a beautiful spot from which to observe the cross. Notch’s ridge here consists of a broad tundra meadow filled with grass and wildflowers that slopes gently to the west. It is a pastoral spot to sit and contemplate the surrounding grandeur. The actual summit of Notch Mountain is a couple of hundred feet higher a short distance to the north.
At the east edge of the meadow stands a 75 year old shelter house. The sturdy structure is built of stone and is conveniently equipped with lightning rods. It is about twenty feet square and has a large wooden table inside next to some windows that look out at the view of Holy Cross. On the opposite side of the room is a large stone fireplace with a plaque on the mantle above that contains Psalm 66:3. This looked like a cozy place for many a visitor over the years when the elements outside were severe, but I wondered how one would get firewood up here to 13,000 feet.
There was no one else about when I arrived on the top, and after I examined the shelter house I found a nice spot to sit on the meadow outside and absorb the magnificence around me. I gazed at the cross a while, and then looked at the Halo Ridge that circled around to the south and on around to Holy Cross. That would be a nice hike to try sometime, I thought.
A helicopter droned in the distance and presently cruised in from the north and flew directly over me a couple of hundred of feet above. It circled around the Halo Ridge, went on past Holy Cross, and in a few minutes was gone. I noticed a medical red cross on its side, and wondered if it were on a rescue mission.
The couple I had passed earlier soon arrived on top and found some rocks to sit on near the north edge of the meadow. This place would be a magnificent spot to lounge about for hours if the weather were nice. However, a little before 11 a.m. I decided I had better move on, since the clouds were rapidly piling up.
The southern summit of Notch Mountain was about a quarter of a mile to the north, and I decided to scramble up there across some boulders to have a look. The view of the cross from there was even a little better than from below at the shelter house, since the perspective of the cross was slightly more straight on. Notch has two summits which are nearly the same height, with a deep, cliffy notch between them that is perhaps three or four hundred feet deep. From where I stood on the southern summit I could look across to the northern one less than a quarter of a mile away. I considered bushwhacking down through the rugged notch to the other summit and then following Notch’s north ridge down to Halfmoon Pass on my return to the trailhead. After scrambling about searching for a route for a few minutes, though, I concluded that this rugged traverse was too tedious and hazardous to suit me, especially with threatening weather moving in, so I turned back.
I headed back down to the shelter house and saw four or five more hikers who had arrived there. At 11:50 I left the top and headed back down the trail. I could see rain falling in the distance, and soon some sprinkles began falling on me. On the way down Jorie flushed up a couple of ptarmigans, and had fun chasing them as they squawked and flitted about, apparently to protect their nest nearby. By 1 p.m. I was back down in the woods on the Fall Creek trail, and the sun came out once again to start the afternoon off on a pleasant note. As I continued down the trail, though, it soon clouded over again and the day’s first peel of thunder rumbled behind me about ten minutes before I reached the trailhead. It was rapidly followed by several more, and rain was pelting down on me as I climbed into my 4-Runner and drove off down the road.
It was a beautiful hike to a spectacular place. Notch Mountain is certainly one of Colorado’s special places. Indeed, if it were not such a relatively difficult place to get to, it would be a major tourist attraction. The best time for the climb is from late June to mid July, when the cross is filled with snow but the surrounding rock is mostly dry. Later in the summer the cross largely disappears as the snow melts away, although the Mount of the Holy Cross itself remains very impressive from this vantage point. This is a place that everyone who is able should go see, for this stirring scene can stretch one’s mind and soul. I, for one, look forward to returning.
-- "Never lose an opportunity to see anything that is beautiful, for beauty is God's handwriting." --author unknown
