Baldy Peak, 10,866': The Long and Legal Approach

Essence: A gorgeous, proud mountain with unusual flowers defining the southern terminus of the La Platas. The lowest peak in the range ironically requires the highest effort to summit. The mountain is only two miles due east of Mayday but you cannot get there from the hamlet because of private property limitations. This all-day hike approaches from Lightner Creek and is wholly contained within public lands (Perins Peak State Wildlife Area and U.S. National Forest). Navigation prowess is essential.   
Travel: Measure from the US 160/550 intersection in Durango. Drive west on US 160. Turn right on Lightner Creek Road, CR 207, at 3.3 miles. Take a soft right on CR 208, Dry Fork Road, at 4.4 miles. Enter the Perins Peak State Wildlife Area (SWA). The dirt road is prone to potholes but 2WD vehicles should make the trailhead. At 6.3 miles take the left fork. Swing left into the generous parking lot at 6.5 miles.
Distance and Elevation Gain: 16.0 miles; 5,150 feet of climbing
Time: 9:30 to 11:30
Difficulty: Trail, off-trail, abandoned mining road; significant navigation challenge; no exposure; brushy; carry enough food and water for a full day of hiking.
Winter Closure: December 1 through April 15. The land on both sides of CR 208 is within Perins Peak SWA. Public access is prohibited during the closure period which is intended to protect wintering big-game and spring-nesting peregrine falcons. Dogs must be on leash. The closure on the east side of CR 208 is extended through July 31. This includes the Dry Gulch Trail and Perins Peak.
Maps: Durango West, Hesperus, Colo. 7.5' USGS Quads, or Apogee Mapping
Latest Date Hiked: June 25, 2019
Quote: You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. In climbing, take careful note of the difficulties along your way; for as you go up, you can observe them. Coming down, you will no longer see them, but you will know they are there if you have observed them well. There is an art of finding one's direction in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. Rene Daumal

As seen from Smelter Mountain in Durango in February, 2014, Baldy Peak is positioned well south of Silver Mountain and rises to the northwest of Twin Buttes. It is girded with aspen groves and opens to a wide summit expanse. After a long approach climb the eastern flank of the mountain.

Route: From the Deep Creek Trailhead hike west along a tributary of Dry Fork. The trail passes from Perins Peak SWA into U.S. National Forest. Cross Deep Creek and climb off-trail northwest onto a glacial moraine. Walk north to skirt private land and plunge west to Lightner Creek. Ford the creek and bushwhack northwest. Link with an abandoned mining road that ascends the east flank of the mountain. Leave the road at 9,640 feet and climb the east ridge of Baldy Peak. It is helpful to carry a GPS unit that delineates the public-private land boundaries. Thank you, John Bregar, for commandeering the public lands route for this hike.

From the trailhead, elevation 7,340 feet, walk directly west along a tributary of Dry Fork on a well-defined trail within Perins Peak SWA managed by Colorado Parks and Wildlife. 

The path climbs softly through ponderosa and aspen while passing a prize-winning Gambel oak.

Hawthorn trees blossom in early summer. The track rises to a low pass directly under the north slopes of Barnroof Point at 1.0 mile, 7,780 feet. 

Pause and get your bearings. Deep Creek is the first depression. A moraine separates Deep Creek from Lightner Creek. Next is the southeast flank of Baldy. The summit is image-left. Silver Mountain rises stately on the skyline. The trail turns north onto a low ridge. Stay on the track for about ten paces and then branch left onto a descending path. (Thomas Holt Ward, photo)

The trail crosses a lush meadow. If it becomes obscure, hold a northwest trajectory into a draw. A gate at 1.5 miles marks the boundary between Perins Peak SWA and National Forest. Please close the gate.

The trail passes through a stand of old growth ponderosa, swings down into a large meadow at Deep Creek, and ends at 2.0 miles, 7,500 feet. This image was shot in November when the cottonwoods lining the stream were at rest.

Jump across the creek and bushwhack up the east-facing slope of the moraine. There are pretty good openings in the brush. Top out on the moraine at 2.4 miles, 7,940 feet, and walk north through glades, stands of Gamble oak, and ponderosa. There is some uncertainty about the composition of the ridge. It may be mostly Mancos Shale with remnants of previously more widespread glacial material. (THW, photo)

Persevere through a thicket of oak and snowberry until you reach elevation 8,040 feet, three miles in. You must attain this elevation on the moraine to avoid private land. The west side of the moraine is steep and cliffy in places. Plummet down at the limit of possibility to Lightner Creek at 3.3 miles, 7,660 feet.

The creek can be hazardous during spring runoff. In 2019, I did a knee-deep barefoot wade. In 2015, we got chased off the mountain by a severe thunder storm just shy of the summit. Lightner Creek was flashing when we recrossed.

Now you must climb 800 feet northwest off-trail. Pitch steeply through aspen and massive blocks that tumbled from Dakota Sandstone cliffs.

Look for a break in the cliff band. We located a short, manageable wall. (THW, photo)

Intersect an abandoned road that winds for miles up to the Texas Chief Mine. We reached it at 4.1 miles, 8,500 feet. This happens to be where the Big Stick Ditch crosses the road. Make sure you are on the road, not the ditch. The road does a major switchback. At Point 8,980' it makes a sharp turn to the left. From this vantage point you can see Silver and Lewis Mountains and look down onto the Entrada Sandstone slab that stands out from Barnroof Point.

There are occasional glimpses of Baldy Peak through resplendent aspen. Four card suits were carved into one trunk long ago. Recognize limber pines by their large cones. This is the land of big trees. It took three of us holding hands to get around an ancient ponderosa on the uphill side of the road.

The track passes an open fenceline at 6.1 miles, 9,500 feet, and disappears in a large, open meadow. Hold your bearing and the road will reappear on the other side.

At 6.7 miles, 9,640 feet, leave the road and branch left onto a trail and begin the east ridge ascent. Just shy of 10,000 feet, a mile off the top, the footpath veers left. Leave the trail, staying on the east ridge. Walk through a mixed forest with some deadfall. Five hundred feet from the summit, trees mysteriously disappear. Emerge onto a steep grassy slope enhanced with scattered spruce.

Looking back, Barnroof Point looks impossibly far away. The Perins Peak cuesta is to its left and Lake Nighthorse is on the right. This is Durango's backyard but it feels fabulously remote. (THW, photo)

The Needle Mountains and Mountain View Crest are an entire mountain range away but startle in their visual proximity. (THW, photo)

Top out on the summit sphere at 8.0 miles tucked under the purview of Deadwood and Silver Mountains. From the softly rounded and unobstructed expanse the view is wide open to the south end of the La Plata Mountains and west to Sleeping Ute and Shiprock. Yes, this is a long hike to a low peak but that is a good deal of its charm. Baldy Peak is quintessentially Western and very much kin with the town of Durango, visible in the southeast. Someday, we intend to climb Baldy from Deadwood Mountain and Paine Ridge but in early summer of 2019 it was impossible to cross the raging La Plata River. (THW, photo)

The peak register was placed in 2007. Elevation gain so far is 4,250 feet. Be psyched for the 400-foot climb out of Lightner Creek and the 250-foot gradual ascent on-trail from Deep Creek to the base of Barnroof Point, shown.
(THW, photo)

This is one of the best nature hikes in the La Plata Mountains. Ladybugs covered the summit in 2010. Fresh bear and elk scat littered the way. We saw two kinds of swallowtail butterflies, a Milbert's tortoiseshell butterfly, red-tailed hawk, and two golden eagles soaring. A horney toad pressed his belly against a warm rock.

Since this is a low elevation hike unusual flowers complimented the regulars including the rare Pagosa bladderpod, Rocky Mountain milkvetch, pygmy bitterroot, sugarbowl, golden banner, bastard toadflax, evening primrose, strawberry, chokecherry, serviceberry, dogwood, clematis, blue-eyed Mary, townsendia, heartleaf arnica, pussytoes, wild iris, sweet cicely, wallflower, rockcress, flax, woods' rose, Indian paintbrush, lupine, larkspur, bluebell, cinquefoil, New Mexican senecio, Rocky Mountain and toadflax penstemon, bedstraw, golden smoke, mule's ear, daisy fleabane, buckwheat, purple and white violet, candytuft, white peavine, green gentian, scarlet beeblossom, and spotted coralroot, below. (THW, photo)