Little Bear Peak Colorado 14er Hike Trail Guide
Little Bear Peak is one of the shorter 14ers in the state of Colorado if you have a 4×4 vehicle, but it is also widely known as one of the most dangerous. While some think this is due to the technical difficulty in the class 4 section called the hourglass, I would argue that it is because of the deadly rock fall potential from the summit all the way down to Lake Como. Little Bear Peak offers fantastic summit views with a number of alpine lakes in the area and is only recommended for advanced hikers.
Little Bear Peak Quick Facts
Virtual Trail Guide: Little Bear Peak
Little Bear Peak Hike Rating: ★★★★ (4/5 Stars)
Distance: 10-12 Miles RT to Lake Como, 13 – 15 Miles RT to Little Bear Peak
Elevation Start: Various – depends on your starting point – lowest is 8,000 feet
Highest Point: Lake Como: 11,750, Little Bear Peak: 14,035 ft
Total Elevation Gain: Various – maximum: 3,900 ft to Lake Como, 6,200 ft to Little Bear Peak
Estimated Time to Complete: Usually hiked in multiple days: 4-6 Hours RT to Lake Como, Additional 2-4 Hours RT from Lake Como to Little Bear Peak. Total: 7-10 Hours RT (depending on starting point)
Difficulty: Strenuous What does this mean?
Class: Class 1 to Lake Como, Class 4 up Little Bear Peak
Season: June – October (Expect snow/ice, especially in the hourglass outside of this period)
Directions to Little Bear Peak
Trailhead: Lake Como
Getting Here: From the North: Take I25 or US285 to CO150 or US160 until you are just outside of Alamosa, Colorado. Turn onto Lake Como Road and continue as far as you are capable of/your vehicle is able to handle. Read the parking instructions below on details for the road. You can enter Lake Como Road into your favorite navigational device – this will bring you a couple of miles up the road:
Fees: None
Parking: Little Bear Peak offers several parking options depending on the vehicle you are driving. If you have a car, either park right off Colorado 150 or continue another ¼ mile to a larger lot. Both are accessible to 99% of vehicles. Once you get past this point, Lake Como Road gets very dicey. If you have a stock 4×4 or AWD vehicle with higher clearance, you should be able to drive up to 9,000 feet or so (1.5 miles up the road). The road is very nasty to start off, but does ease up eventually and basically turns into a dirt road. If you are able to make it to a point where the road goes downhill (around 8,800 ft), you should be able to continue on up to about 10,000 feet to find a few pull-offs that can fit 2-3 cars at each location or make it all the way up to about 10,300 feet and find a larger lot that can fit 10 or so cars.
Ultimately, all of this depends on your driving skills, experience with off -roading and tolerance to scrape your car. Once you get past this larger lot at 10,300 feet – only continue if you have a modified vehicle with very high clearance which could make it all the way up to Lake Como.
Important Note: The approach to Little Bear Peak and Lake Como road is very narrow so please drive carefully. There are also no bathrooms at any point of the road.
Summary
Camping: By far the most popular spot to camp during a hike to Little Bear Peak is at Lake Como. Lake Como is usually very busy on weekends, especially major holidays (Labor Day, Memorial Day etc.) Camping options on the west side of the lake are generally hard to come by, but if you hike around to the east side you can usually find more dispersed options with less crowds. If you are looking for a quite, secluded experience – Lake Como is not your best bet unless you visit during the week in the off season.
Dogs: Little Bear Peak is absolutely not acceptable to bring a dog on. Not only is it too dangerous to bring a dog, but a dog also significantly increases the danger for other hikers. If you like to hike with your furry friend, you can hike up to Lake Como and even Blanca Peak or Ellingwood Point with an experienced mountain dog. Please pick up after your dog if you do bring them up to Lake Como, its dirty enough with human trash.
Make it a Loop: The trail to Little Bear Peak is commonly hiked as an out and back hike. However, for the more experienced and adventurous, you can make the hike a lollipop loop by hiking over to Blanca via the dangerous ridge traverse. Those hiking up to Lake Como commonly hike Blanca Peak and Ellingwood Peak separately by their standard routes.
Trail X Factors: Little Bear Peak has a few x factors to keep in mind when hiking. First, lets start of with bugs. If you plan on camping at Lake Como or even passing through the area during the months of July and early August, expect a lot of mosquitoes. This basin (and the Sangres in general) get overrun with mosquitoes for about 3-4 weeks a year when the snow is melting and temperatures are warm. Mosquitoes can make camping almost impossible and hiking super unpleasant.
Hike Tip(s): Hands down the biggest tip I have to offer while hiking Little Bear Peak would be to start earlier than anyone else. Not only does this reduce the danger of rockfall in the hourglass but the gully to gain the southwest ridge of Little Bear Peak is also super loose and could easily cause a serious injury if rocks start flying. If you are hiking around other parties/people on Little Bear Peak – be SUPER vocal with any rockfall and although its very hard, be careful with your footing so that you do not shed rock. If you want to avoid other hikers on Little Bear Peak – head there during the late fall months or during the week for your best bet at more seclusion. However, ultimately it’s a crap shoot.
Second, let’s talk about the hourglass itself which has a few variables to it. Due to its angle and location on the mountain, the hourglass on Little Bear Peak can hold snow, ice and water for much longer than 95% of the rest of the hike. If you are hiking in May, June and early July – prepare to bring a mountain ax and crampons. Finally, the rockfall in the hourglass can be downright fatal, especially when other hikers are above you. In my opinion, the climbing in the hourglass is not super difficulty (relatively speaking), but the rockfall is absolutely no joke. Whether you are climbing or down-climbing the hourglass, be sure to call out any rocks and honestly, I would avoid going anywhere near it if there are more than 2 other hikers in the area.
Best Views: The best views of the hike up Little Bear Peak start at Lake Como. Although this area is usually a CF of people – it is insanely beautiful. From the summit of Little Bear Peak you can get amazing views of a handful of alpine lakes in the area. However, the best views for me on this hike (which admittedly most will not experience) were on the Little Bear to Blanca Traverse and in the valley directly below Blanca Peak and Ellingwood Point which are not on the route to Little Bear Peak, but certainly worth a trip up.
Little Bear Peak Hike Route
Includes the traverse over to Blanca Peak
Gear Needed
- 14er Day Hike Packing List
- Men’s Trail Runners
- Women’s Trail Runners
- La Sportiva Trango Hiking Boots (Men’s)
- La Sportiva Trango Hiking Booths (Women’s)
- Backpack
- Climbing Helmet
- Food & Water
- Optional: Garmin inReach
- Optional: Hiking Poles
- Optional: Headlamp
- Optional: Garmin Fenix Watch
- Optional: Camera and Lens
- Optional: GoPro, Joby Tripod
- *Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you.
Our Trip to Little Bear Peak: August 2019
When planning out my list of 14ers, Little Bear Peak was always on the list of ones to tackle last. The mountain has a reputation for being difficult and dangerous. After almost 2 years of failed trip planning, a perfect weekend finally emerged for my friend Nick and I to tackle this Little Bear.
Lake Como Approach
We arrived at Lake Como Road around 1PM 1:40PM on a Saturday Afternoon in August. Since Nick’s truck has much better clearance than my car did, we took his truck to see how far up the road we could make it. The approach to Little Bear Peak via Lake Como Road has a nasty reputation in itself. The road started off brutal with a ton of baby-heads (small rocks), so about 1.5 – 2 miles up Lake Como Road we decided to park and were hiking around 2:30PM. Unfortunately, we quickly found out that the first part of the road was much worse than up higher, but we were already hiking now so it was too late to turn back.
The hike up the dirt road was extremely hot and the sun beat down on us and we slowly climbed in elevation and made our way closer to Little Bear Peak. The approach was very typical to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains – a steady uphill hike that would eventually lead us to Lake Como. Around 10,300 ft up, we hiked by the last true “parking area” and the road got a lot more rough after this point. The one positive about the hike up to Lake Como was that the views down into the valley were outstanding.
We continued hiking up, crossed a small stream and ran into 3 modified jeepers who offered us water. Nick and I both started to plan how we could save up for one of these vehicles to save us from all these long ass approaches in the future. As we got closer to the lake, a handful of mosquitoes started to feast on our blood and we were both about ready to reach the lake and set-up camp for the night.
After about 3 hours of hiking, we reached Lake Como underneath Little Bear Peak around 5:30PM. The lake was packed with other hikers, jeepers and fishermen so we found a small spot to pop-up the tent, cooked dinner and then hiked over to a more secluded spot of the lake to enjoy the stunning views of Lake Como and Little Bear Peak.
Little Bear Peak
Our plan of attack for hiking Little Bear Peak was to be the first ones up the mountain so that we could worry a bit less about rockfall. When we woke up around 3AM it was clear that no one else in the area was in any rush to hike Little Bear so we decided to take our time getting ready and eventually started hiking around 4.
We hiked around Lake Como in the pitch black, crisp summer air and reached the first gully we had to ascend about 20 minutes later. The gully itself was a hot mess. It was a combination of loose dirt and gravel with large rocks and even smaller boulders all very loose. We found out very quickly that we could not trust the solidity of any of the rock on this slope. After a bit of hiking, we hiked over to the right side of the gully that proved to be more solid, but still not to be trusted completely.
Around the top of the ridge, we ran into another hiker and chatted about our plan for the day and our remaining 14ers. Once we topped out of the gully, the three of us made our way across the long class 2 traverse to the base of the hourglass. The traverse was long, but the sun was finally starting to rise so we slowed our pace a bit and enjoyed the beautiful morning colors that were reflecting in the valley below us. We reached the hourglass and decided to let the other hiker go first so that I could get some footage of the hourglass for my video.
After plenty of space in between, Nick and I started our climb up the Class 4 hourglass. The route was extremely straightforward because there were a series of janky ropes in the middle of it (see my video for thoughts on this). Honestly, I felt that the ropes were very unnecessary as the rock was stable, dry and not very technical so we didn’t touch them with a 10 foot pole. We both continued on our way up the hourglass and spoke about how it was a bit overhyped. Towards the top of the hourglass we had a choice to go left or right, we picked left and continue up towards the summit of Little Bear Peak.
As we were hiking up past the hourglass, we instantly realized that the rock here was very unstable and immediately sent a few smaller chunks flying down into the hourglass. I screamed, “ROCK!!!” and luckily no one was behind us. We realized that the true danger of this hike up Little Bear Peak was the potential to get hit with a rock flying down the hourglass. Anything from where we stood or above us would eventually go shooting into the hourglass like a rocket ship. Not good.
Nick and I were both very glad to have no one else around us and continued hiking, this time extremely careful with each foot placement. The closer we got towards the summit of Little Bear Peak, the more inconsistent the conditions became. In sections, there were large slabs of rock to climb on and in others it was literally a gravel field. The bottom line, we couldn’t trust any of it. Route finding past the hourglass was somewhat straightforward as we knew the summit was basically straight above us. We hiked up the class 3 terrain for 10-20 more minutes and reached the summit of Little Bear Peak shortly after.
Little Bear Peak marked my 57/58 14ers completed and I was so pumped to be on the summit but knew that the real challenge of the day was still ahead of us. Instead of descending via the standard route, the plan of attack was the head over to Blanca Peak via the Little Bear Peak to Blanca Traverse. We enjoyed the beautiful summit views for a bit but I wanted to get a quick start on the traverse before I started to overthink it.
Little Bear Peak Virtual Trail Guide
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