TWIN PEAKS
(13,580')August 2, 2007
By Tim Briese
Brian and I left Alamosa early in the morning and drove to the South Zapata Creek Trailhead, located at the base of the Sangre de Cristos a few miles south of the Great Sand Dunes National Park. At 5 a.m. we began hiking on a trail to the east from the parking area with our headlamps. This trailhead splits duty as an access point for popular Zapata Falls located nearby and also for hiking up the South Zapata Creek drainage, so we took care to get on the right trail in the darkness. This turned out to be no problem, for after hiking a couple of hundred yards on the main trail we came to a signed turnoff for our trail which branched off to the right, and we were on our way.
After less than a mile we came to a stream crossing, where Brian managed to rock hop across the fast-moving torrent while I elected to ford the water, not wanting to risk slipping on a wet rock in the darkness. The route then climbed vigorously up the drainage, for a while high above the north side of the creek. Then it leveled off and gradually descended about 150 feet to rejoin and cross the creek again. The trail was rather rocky in many places, typical of the Sangres. After we passed timberline the trail became somewhat faint as we strolled through lush grassy meadows. At 7:45 we reached South Zapata Lake, at about 11,900 feet, after hiking nearly five miles from the trailhead. This was a spectacular place, with the lake set in a rugged cirque surrounded by high, precipitous peaks, including Ellingwood Point to the southeast.
After a nice break near the lake we left the drainage and began bushwhacking up steep slopes to the west toward our goal. We managed to stay mostly on grass, but also tackled a couple of rough talus slopes when necessary. Brian again used his GPS to point out the direction to our peak, which was helpful. We climbed to the 13,420 foot saddle between the two Twin Peaks, then turned to the right and seven minutes later stepped atop the higher northern summit. We arrived there about 9:45.
This interesting vantage point offered a unique panorama. To the west was an unobstructed map-like view of the San Luis Valley spread out below. To the north were the Sand Dunes packed against the edge of the valley, with the Crestones towering beyond. To the south and southeast, just across the deep valley that held Zapata Creek, lay the rugged spine of the Sangres, including the majestic Blanca group of high peaks. To the south beyond the gentle saddle lay the southern summit of Twin Peaks, a quarter of a mile away. It was sunny and pleasant on the summit, but just to the east we observed low, dense upslope clouds piling against the eastern side of the range and roiling upward thousands of feet into the air above.
After enjoying this unique place for a while we took our leave and hiked over to the southern summit. From there we had a nice look down into the wild Pioneer Creek drainage directly west of Ellingwood Point. It is a place that is likely very seldom visited.
Soon we began our descent, trying to retrace our ascent route as closely as we could, because we had noted on the way up that reasonable options appeared quite limited because of cliff bands and rough talus slopes. It took only 45 minutes to get from the summit ridge back down to the lake, whereupon we took a short break before heading back down the trail. The sky clouded up shortly after this, which provided a pleasant respite from the growing heat of the midday sun. We saw no one else on the hike all day until we neared the trailhead area. Throngs of tourists were walking up to see Zapata Falls, and we elected to make the short 100 yard side-trip to see it ourselves. However, when we entered a scenic little gorge that held the falls, people were blocking the path at a narrow sloping place between a cliff and a pool of water, so we decided to forgo the falls and return to the truck instead. We returned to the trailhead at 2 p.m., completing this eleven and a half mile, 5000 foot climb of Twin Peaks in about nine hours. This completed the mountain climbing that Brian and I did together on this trip. We climbed together for five days in a row, visiting several majestically beautiful parts of the state.
