July 25, 2019

By Tim Briese

11594: 1.4 miles, 300’ elevation gain, 0:50 roundtrip time

11144: 3.1 miles, 700’ elevation gain, 1:55 roundtrip time

Brian and I drove up the good 2WD dirt road to 11,248’ Cordova Pass and parked in the nice parking area there. I hadn’t been here since I climbed West Spanish Peak many years ago. At 835 we started hiking up an old road through the woods southwest of the parking area.

we took the old road through the trees near the center of the photo

After a few hundred yards we left the road and bushwhacked up to the left on easy terrain toward the unnamed point. To our surprise we passed someone’s palatial part time home, sitting in grand seclusion, with spectacular panoramic views. It didn’t look like it had been used too much for a while.

a nice place for a weekend getaway.  west spanish peak is to the left.

After a couple of hundred yards more we reached the gentle summit, complete with a cairn, great views, and a Verizon cell tower at which three fellows were working, having driven up an access road from the east.

brian on the summit

there were nice panoramic views to the north from the summit

After a couple of minutes we left and walked back down to the pass.

Then we drove back down Highway 12 and turned left onto FR422 and followed it for five miles up to the Bear Lake Campground, on a nicely graded dirt road that climbed steeply up some switchbacks past the Blue Lakes. From a hiker/fisherman parking lot south of the campground we left at 1045 and hiked north through the campground. 

view of unnamed 11144 from the campground

From the north end of the campground we took the Indian Trail north up the valley about 0.6 miles to a minor saddle. There we left the trail and made an easy bushwhack to the east up to the unnamed point’s long and gentle north ridge. Once on the ridge we turned south and hiked up through trees and meadows to the summit, where we arrived at 1135.

approaching the summit

There were surprisingly nice views for such a low elevation peak. Clouds were rapidly building up but we sat and enjoyed this spot for a while.

view of trinchera peak from the summit

After twenty minutes we left and headed back down. Along the trail on the way back to the campground we encountered several folks hunting for mushrooms on the nearby slopes. At 1240 we returned to the parking lot and departed.