Crosier Mountain

At 9,250 Crosier Mountain isn't the biggest mountain in Colorado, but the hike is definitely one of the more demanding. Tuesday, September 11th Tucker and Brian decided to celebrate a day off from drug dealing and enjoy the outdoors. A 40 minute drive up the Big Thompson then branching north following the North Fork of the Thompson will lead you to the trailhead. Leaving the trailhead at 8:45 am we immediately encountered steep terrain with switchbacks. The morning was cool, around 50 degrees, however; a full sweat was broken and layers were discarded within 15 minutes. Hiking was slow as a few breaks to catch our breaths were in order. Also the trail had a lot of animal scent on it, so pee leg lifts were the norm every 5 minutes for T-Man. At one trail intersection there was an elk leg hangin in a tree, very peculiar... Tucker was intrigued and was not to be denied a sniff as he stood on his back legs to get up the hanging appendage.

Now the trail goes through many different areas. First you begin in a mature ponderosa pine forest which turns into mostly scrub brush after a mile or so. This brush is a peak of one foothill, however; you must traverse across a creek bed to get to Crosier Mountain. At this point the forest turns very Wisconsin like with thick underbrush on each side of the trail. Aspen trees provide shade from the sun and whistle in the morning breeze. Cool drafts of air come down the gulch/creek bed. After a half mile of being in the gulch you come up to an area of thick ponderosa pines, none of which is higher than 15 or 20 feet high. It looks as though the area was burned not long ago. The trail here becomes very hard to walk up as many small pebbles make up the trail.

At just over 3 miles you come to a trail sign saying Crosier Mountain is only 0.5miles. While Brian rests and looks at the sign Tucker vomits up his breakfast and what looks like two pieces of poop. Brian concludes Tucker had eaten some of the cougar poop on the trail and it upset his stomach. Now he would have to share his sandwich with the dog. The final ascent goes up through some knotty, twisted pine brush, boulders, and meadows. At the top you have a view of peaks south of Rocky Mountain National Park, Longs Peak, Hallet Peak, the Mummy Range, and to the east you can see Loveland, and somewhere Windsor. It was fairly hazy that morning and it was hard to make things out on the plains.


We enjoyed the view for 20 minutes or so, ate, and drank. Tucker hunted a big grouse that I spotted upon arriving. I don't know if found it, but it looked like he had fun upon his return.

The picture below shows the view from Crosier Mountain. Somebody labeled it so you at least know what you're looking at. Click on it to make it readable.





Going down is going down. The trail wasn't that great so it was a little bit more precarious than usual, yet we made it down unscathed. Arriving at the car at noon it was time to load up and do some errands on the way home.

7.5miles total, 2,280 ft elevation gain. Trail was aggressive. 3.25 hours total.