11/25/07 – "Lake Park Peak" & "Tarryall Peak" – Southwest Slopes & North Slopes

14.9 miles, 4330 feet


I completed my first quarter of graduate school last Wednesday, and after spending a nice Thanksgiving with Erin's mom and grandparents, I realized I had a strong urge to visit the Lost Creek Wilderness. Erin and I hadn't been to the LCW since 2004, and we'd only once climbed peaks in the Tarryall Mountains back in 2003. It was time to remedy this shortcoming with a hike to Lake Park, a place I'd long dreamed of visiting. We set off early Sunday morning and arrived at the Spruce Grove Campground before 7:00. This campground is closed in the winter, so we had to park just outside the gate. We hiked through the campground, crossed Tarryall Creek on a fine footbridge, and set off on the Lizard Rock Trail. Immediately we were met with something you might only find in the Tarryalls. The trail actually finds passage underneath a pair of boulders so massive that it felt like a tunnel. What a neat way to be reintroduced to the area! We hiked up the gentle grade of the trail for a mile or so before entering a small canyon between towering piles of Pikes granite. We popped up east of Lizard Rock at a saddle where the morning views across the Hay Creek valley toward McCurdy Mountain and Bison Peak were enticing. We decided to hike up to Lizard Rock to gain a better vantage and to see if we could climb this rugged, little 9er.

We inspected the summit block's walls as we hiked higher, but we saw nothing that looked easy. The Lizard Rock Trail continues to a rocky bench just west of the summit, and the views of McCurdy were indeed glorious. However, we could also see that Lizard Rock wouldn't be a possibility without protection. Significant exposure blocked the next move, and even if we got by that, there was a difficult looking crack to climb next. We tried one more route up Lizard, and we found ourselves beneath the overhanging summit block. There was no scrambling route from here either, but we did find a cool eyehole through the rock. We resumed our hike, and we started to lose some elevation. I didn't think too much of it until we arrived at a switchback, after which the trail continued to descend. We had to be on the wrong trail. A look at the map confirmed that we had descended a hundred feet on the cutoff to the Brookside-McCurdy Trail. We doubled back and found the junction with the Hankins Pass Trail. We were back on track, but misnavigation would be a recurring theme today.

We hiked higher towards Hankins Pass on the cozy confines of the trail. Every now and then, views opened both behind us toward Lizard Rock and before us toward one of our goals for the day, "The Catamount." The peak's summit is somewhat difficult to reach – a hundred-foot fourth-class chimney climb caps an orienteering challenge – and I was unsure whether the patchy snow would present an obstacle. First on the agenda, however, was "Lake Park Peak," a twin-summitted beauty that anchors the southeast end of the Lake Park massif. We arrived at Hankins Pass and turned left at the signed junction with the Lake Park Trail. A mile and a half of switchbacks weaved us past massive rock towers, and we noticed curious structures on the ridgeline above us.

When we reached the saddle that marks the entrance to Lake Park, we turned east to gain Lake Park Peak's southwest ridge. We were delighted to discover we'd be walking right by the towers we'd been gazing at earlier, including a massive, Stonehenge-like structure. Our attention now shifted to our peak, and we contoured beneath its summit, bushwhacking through the dense brush that chokes the cracks between the piles of rocks and boulders. A short scramble brought us to the alcove east of the peak, and we boulder-hopped to the windy summit with a clear view across the park to "The Catamount" and "Tarryall Peak" as our reward. We gazed past the peak's east summit into the Hayman Burn area. That fire's immensity remains staggering to me.

Lake Park Peak's north slopes looked like a good way to return to the park below, so we elected to descend them directly. This descent went well with a bare minimum of bushwhacking. We crossed Lake Park, intending to pick up the trail on the other side to head for "Tarryall Peak," and here's where I screwed up. I was convinced of my mental picture of the map and the area, and I directed us toward the slopes below the Tarryall's southeast ridge. I was sure that if we just ascended this slope to beneath the rocks, we'd run into the trail. Well, we didn't, and I was baffled. We started to contour northeast, bushwhacking through some strangling, immature aspen. We lost some elevation to reach open parkland again, and then we aimed for a saddle to the north. I was certain this saddle was the one east of Tarryall and that we'd find the trail for the return trip. But it wasn't there either. Now I was really confused, and Erin commented that she was pretty turned around, too. I retrieved the map and noted that a ragged wall of granite spires was just to our west, and I finally figured out what was going on. A rocky ridge and a drainage separated us from Tarryall. We climbed up to the wall of towers, and found a weak spot in the ridge. Sure enough, once the view cleared, we could see higher ground to the west. Tarryall, at last! We dropped down to this next saddle, and finally, here was the trail again. We crossed it and ascended Tarryall's steep northeast slopes. I found a fun scrambling route after circling around to the southwest side of the peak. I called to Erin that I had found a way up, and she followed me to this special summit.

Our little adventure had chewed up time. As we looked back to "Lake Park Peak," we realized that three hours had passed since we left its summit just a mile away as the crow flies. With only a couple hours of daylight left, we knew that "The Catamount" and our pipe-dream of climbing South Tarryall Peak were no longer in the picture. We descended to the trail and began the six-mile hike back to the campground. Words can't even describe how endlessly spectacular this area is. We hiked down the trail embraced by rock walls to either side. Each spire, each blocky tower has so much individual character that it becomes easy to lose yourself trying to soak it all in. In crossing a small meadow, I could see we had come frustratingly close to the trail earlier. If only I had realized the complexity of Tarryall's terrain and specifically the fact that we had skirted two southeast trending ridges when we should have only skirted one, we may not have wasted so much time. We followed the trail back to the head of the park, passing beneath the warm glow of the late afternoon sun on Lake Park Peak.

As we made our way back to Hankins Pass, the sunset played brilliantly with the clouds and the surrounding peaks. We were treated to soft yellows above the beautiful silhouette of the Sawatch Range, flashy oranges on nearby outcrops, and cool pinks and purples as the day faded into twilight. Simply a spectacular finale to this late-autumn day in the hills. The temperature was dropping fast, so at the base of Lizard Head Rock, we put on our jackets and donned our headlamps, cranking out the final two miles quickly. We got back to the 4Runner just after 6:00, completing an 11-hour round trip.