Hike Crystal Peak and Nellie Creek 13ers Loop Grand Mesa-Uncompahgre-Gunnison National Forest, CO

Sep 12, 2021 — Back to Colorado for my second time this summer. I left Lake City last month a little disappointed at the many peaks I left behind that I wanted to get to this year. I couldn’t help myself and pretty much immediately started planning a trip when I got home. This being day 1, I was excited despite potentially bad weather. And this was in fact quite a stormy and thundery day, not exactly inspiring confidence when hiking at 13,000 feet. I was a bit on edge most of the hike, and photos might show you why. This loop summits three official Colorado 13ers, and I tacked Crystal Peak on at the start to make a really pleasant-looking loop.

Nellie Creek Road would have probably been passable with my crossover for the first couple miles to a hairpin turn a couple of miles up the road, but I didn't know what to expect and decided to walk from the turn-off to Nellie Creek Road. I walked past an ATV that decided to turn around and an abandoned truck that was precariously situated perpendicular to the road. I wouldn’t recommend anything less than a burly of vehicles past this point even though the road does improve afterward. The junction that formed the loop I was planning to do wasn’t far ahead past this hairpin turn anyway. Part of me wished I had driven to this point and walk from there, but I was ultimately content to walk as an extended warmup and save my car’s tires. You can cut off around 5 miles from this hike if you make it to the junction where my loop forms (see map).

After hiking to the road junction at around 10,500 feet I took a right first in order to reach Crystal Peak, doing the loop counter-clockwise. The road past the junction ended shortly after it started, and the trail continued on the opposite side of Nellie Creek along an old road bed. Shortly after starting along the trail I got some initial views of the ridgeline above. The trail (I couldn't find the name of it anywhere) was overall in good shape with a couple of slightly overgrown sections and occasional flooding, but I had no trouble following it through the forest as I made my way up to Crystal Peak. I got an intentional late start to attempt avoiding the predicted poor weather at midday, and sure enough I was pelted with precipitation before emerging from treeline, the first of three close calls. After waiting out some lightning I emerged above tree line at the base of Crystal Peak. The old road switchbacked through the tundra and then started to bend north, so I left the old road/trail and ascended the steep grassy slope to the sloped ridge above.  Now on the north side of Crystal Peak, it was an easy tundra stroll south to the peak. I looked behind me and saw a horrible-looking sotrm coming my way. I convinced myself I could just drop off Crystal Peak and descend to Crystal Lake Trail if the storm got worse and headed my way. Fortunately that didn't happen, but I did feel like I was almost literally playing with lightning with my choices today.

From the gorgeous summit of Crystal Peak, I headed north along the ridgeline on lovely tundra toward my next peak, unnamed 13er Peak 13091. Along the ridge I avoided one grassy hump, and kept left around some interesting white boulders, a totally unexpected rock feature. Reaching Peak 13091 required a Class 2 boulder-hop up to a steeper Class 2/2+ move to gain the rim. Peak 13091's wide summit offered amazing views as I continued west toward Peak 13106, aka "Nellie Point". I dropped down the tundra slope to the saddle separating the two peaks and then made an ascending traverse to the southeast side of Peak 13106, avoiding cliffs on its east slopes. Some steeper tundra and light Class 2 brought me back to the ridgeline, where I was confronted with yet another set of horrible-looking clouds coming my way. I rushed along the interesting Class 2 ridgeline to Peak 13106, a series of blocky boulders creating a maze-like ascent. Without proper foresight, you might have to pull a low Class 3 move here and there, but you can certainly keep the ascent Class 2 by wandering in and out of the blocks.

I descended from the summit of Peak 13106, running through the wide open tundra as lightning got closer. I was definitely freaking out and was sure I'd be bailing on the final peak of the day, Peak 13158. Spoiler: I didn't. I could see it completely shrouded in clouds to the southwest. I made it off the open tundra on the west side of Peak 13106 and reached the trail called Big Blue Creek Trail. I rushed down its switchbacks to lower ground just above treeline right as I was pelted for the second time with rain. I hid under a tree like a dummy rather than descend farther to the official Nellie Creek Trailhead, but the storm seemed to be passing. I got pretty lucky yet again. After hiding out for a few minutes and watching the blue skies come back, I ascended the Nellie Creek Trail to just past a really pretty little waterfall. Here I left the trail and ascended a steep Class 2 talus slope heading generally south. More easy walking through rolling tundra and around a bunch of interesting boulders had me at the base of Peak 13158, my last peak of the day.

I located the saddle on the northwest side of Peak 13158 and chose to make an ascending traverse up the steep tundra/scree slope (Class 2) to the saddle. The views from this saddle to the summit of Peak 13158 were incredible. I could outline my whole route of the day, as well as had clear views of the sweeping tundra around Wetterhorn and Uncompahgre Peaks. I stuck to the ridge crest on Class 2 talus to reach the summit.

To get back to my car I had a couple of options, my initial choice being to backtrack to the Nellie Creek trail and descend the entire road. But then I scoped the terrain to the south and my eyes fixed on what appeared to be a trail. Without any knowledge of a trail's existence here, I decided it would be more fun to attempt a descent using the unknown rather than backtracking. This ended up being an excellent choice. Loose Class 2 brought me down Peak 13158's south slope and back onto glorious tundra. A descended until I stumbled on the trail. Later research revealed that this is called the El Paso Creek Trail. The trail follows a very good old road bed for its entirety, switchbacking quite a bit down the slopes until it reached Nellie Creek Road below. The trail is poorly marked from the road, which is likely why it doesn't get a lot of attention, but it was a really nice trail and provided easy access down from the tundra above. Now it was just a matter of walking back a bunch of miles on Nellie Creek Road to reach my car far below.