Missouri Mountain 14er Hike Guide
Missouri Mountain is a Colorado 14er located in the Collegiate Peaks of the Sawatch Range. The hike to the summit is relatively moderate for a 14er, but does involve about 4,500 feet of elevation gain on the way to the top. This is a good 14er for those who are just starting out on their 14er journey and moderately experienced. The views from the top are some of the best in the Collegiate Peak range because the mountain is set back a bit from other peaks. Missouri Mountain also offers some nice spring lines via its North couloirs.
Missouri Mountain Quick Facts
Virtual Trail Guides:
Missouri Mountain Trail Rating: ★★★ (⅗ Stars)
Distance: 11 Miles RT
Elevation Start: 9,692 ft
Summit: 14,075 ft
Total Elevation Gain: 4,600 ft
Estimated Time to Complete: 7-8 Hours RT
Difficulty: Moderate What does this mean?
Class: Class 2 – What does this mean?
Season: Year Round; Expect snow December – July
Directions to Missouri Mountain
Trailhead: Missouri Gulch trailhead
Getting Here: The hike from Missouri Mountain starts at the Missouri Gulch Trailhead which is smack in between Leadville and Buena Vista. If you are coming from Buena Vista, head north on US24 and head south if you are coming from Leadville. Continue on 24 from either direction until you reach County Road 390. This is a fairly well maintained dirt road but can get pretty bumpy in spots. Take the road for about 7.5 miles until you reach the trailhead on your left. If you hit a “museum” on the right side of the road, you have gone too far. You can enter “Missouri Gulch Trailhead” into your favorite navigation app. The trail starts on the west side of the parking lot near Clear Creek.
Parking: The parking lot at Missouri Gulch Trailhead is fairly large, but will 100% fill up on most summer weekends. Parking is free and there is 1 non-plumbing bathroom there. Bring toilet paper, because it will often run out due to the number of people using it.
Summary
Dogs: Missouri Mountain is a dog friendly hike in most seasons. If you are visiting in the early spring or winter, it is probably best to leave your dog at home. The trail is composed mostly of packed dirt with some rock scrambling on the ridge line. However, in winter and spring months the steep snow can leave the trail with lots of exposure in high avalanche danger areas with little room for error.
Camping: If you want to camp in the backcountry along the hike, that is an option, but you will have to hike about 2 – 3 miles in to find flat ground. There are camping spots along County Road 390, but they will fill up quickly. In the past, I have arrived around 5-6PM with rain incoming and forced to set-up the tent in a less than ideal location. However, generally speaking, there are lots of spots to camp near Missouri Mountain.
Make it a Loop: Missouri Mountain is an out and back hike. However, you could go off trail to hike neighboring Mt Belford and Mt Oxford or Emerald Peak. There is not an “official” trail from Missouri to those other 14ers, but it is a fairly straight forward path over there if it is a clear day. If heading to neighboring centennial Emerald Peak, you will find a similar lack of official trail.
Trail X Factors: Stream Crossings
The trail up to Missouri Mountain has about 5 separate stream crossings along the way. In the dry summer months, you will breeze through most of these. However, if the snow pack is high late in the season or you are hiking in the early spring, these harmless stream crossings can turn into hikers gone wild (aka wet).
Hike Tip(s): Waterproof = Your Friend
Regardless of the time of year you hike Missouri Mountain, it is a great idea to have waterproof footwear. Its impossible to predict how many streams you will have to cross with no bridges and walking in wet, waterlogged, footwear is quite simply, the worst. In addition to the streams, the late season snow can sneak into low cut boots and make quick friends with your feet. Also not a fun time. Gaiters will prevent this from happening, but if you don’t have them, waterproof boots and quick drying socks will do.
Best Views: Missouri Mountain was actually one of my favorite mountains in the Sawatch Range to hike, as it pertains to 14ers. Unlike most of the Collegiate Peaks, Missouri Mountain is set back a bit from the road and major towns. This means that summit views bring less signs of humanity, which for those of you who follow these posts, know that is a huge plus for me. In addition to the great summit views, there are a number of streams and of course the large basin that surrounds the east side of Missouri Mountain to take in.
Missouri Mountain Hike Route
Shows the spring route up the “C” couloir and descending the standard route
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 Boots (Women’s)
- La Sportiva Cyklone
- Backpack (Winter)
- Backpack (Summer)
- Running Vest Black
- Food & Water
- Optional: Garmin inReach
- Optional: Hiking Poles – 120CM
- Optional: Headlamp
- Optional: Helmet
- Optional: Garmin Fenix Watch
- Optional: GoPro, Joby Tripod, Selfie Stick, GoPro 360, Drone, Insta360
- *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.
My Trip to Missouri Mountain: June 2017
When you are planning on hiking all of the 14ers and live in the foothills or Front Range, after a while, you run out of mountains that are close. In the summer of 2017, I was training for a 70.3 in Boulder in addition to being busier than normal with work. Driving 4-5 hours for a hike was just not something that was very easy to do. When one of the last weekends of June rolled up, I was planning on doing Mt Sneffels. However, the thought of a 10 hour round trip drive over the span of 24 hours did not sound very appealing to me. Instead, I turned my sites on Missouri Mountain.
Missouri Mountain, like many high elevation peaks in Colorado, has a very different route to the summit depending on the season you hike. In the winter and spring, you take a direct route up colouirs to the summit. However, in the summer and fall, these colouirs no longer have snow and are filled with terribly loose gravel, which makes them impassible. Late June, is out of season for most winter routes, but I was hoping that I could still squeeze one in hiking up Missouri Mountain.
I left for the trailhead around 1:30AM from Evergreen and arrived at approximately 3:30. There were a lot of other cars in the parking lot and even some hikers preparing for the ascent. This lot is where a few different hikes start, so I was not assuming everyone there had Missouri as their destination. For the early hour, I was feeling pretty good, albeit sore from the triathlon training the previous day.
I hit the trail after a couple minutes of recording and shooting the stars and was the lone hiker ascending. The night was pitch black and full of bright stars in the sky. My favorite start to the day. The trail was fairly well packed with dry dirt and worked its way up the side of the hill near the parking area. It started off mellow, but by ¾ of a mile in, I was breathing deep. The switchbacks were fairly steep.
Around 1 mile into the hike, the switchbacks leveled off and I heard the sound of water slowly increasing in volume. At 1.15 miles, I crossed my first pair of streams for the day. The crossings were not too difficult as there were a number of logs laid across the water. Previous hikers had left sticks to balance yourself which saved me from breaking out the hiking poles. Once I crosses the pair of streams, the trail again started to go uphill.
After 1.5 miles, the trail emerged from the trees and into the massive basin that surrounded Missouri Mountain and Mt Belford. It was like walking into the official gateway of the mountains, pretty cool. By this time it was around 5AM and the sun was just starting to light up the sky for the day. The trail entered some willows and around 2.15 miles, reached the fork where hikers could travel up to Mt Belford and Mt Oxford. I continued right and shortly after reached another stream crossing. The late season snow melt made this crossing pretty difficult. The water was high, the rocks were iced over from the night before and there was no straightforward way to cross. I headed downstream and eventually found an area I was able to jump across.
The trail turned back towards Missouri Mountain, which barely looked like a mountain, never mind a 14er. From the distance, it appeared to be just a ridge line. It made me curious as to how this was deemed an official mountain, but others in the state were not. The trail entered some late season snowfields which were crusty, but I could tell that they were going to get much softer as the sun wore away at them. After summiting another small hill, the trail reached yet another series of stream crossings. These ones were much easier to navigate across after I found some snow that was still frozen on top of them.
I hiked through the massive basin and reached the doorstep of Missouri Mountain about 10 minutes later. This was my first real look at the North Colouirs and standard route. From what I could see, the Colouirs looked like they were in great shape (no signs of avalanches) but I was not able to find the entire standard route. I made the decision to take the way that I knew would at least give me the opportunity to summit Missouri Mountain. I slowly worked my way up the Colouir and prepared my gear accordingly.
As I crunched along the snow, the sun was getting higher and higher in the sky. I knew that this route would not be fun on the way down and hoped that the standard route would be possible. Steep turned into more steep with every step, as I slowly ascended via the North Colouri of Missouri Mountain. Each step I was careful with my mountain ax and feet placement in addition to constantly scanning the sky for falling debris. As I neared the top of the colouir, I thought that the massive exposed rock and dirt would be a better way to ascend, I thought wrong. I quickly found out that these patches of earth were far worse for handholds and footing.
After a fairly quick ascent with lots of breaks for, “Good god this is so steep,” I was at the end of the snowfield. All that separated me from the summit was about 50 yards of gravel and loose rock. Let me tell you, these 50 yards SUCKED. The best I can describe these conditions were 1 step forward and about a foot of sliding backwards. It was terrible. I half jogged/half ran to move through this as fast as possible and was finally on the ridgeline. The summit was about 50 yards away and I could see that I had it entirely to myself. My favorite!
After a quick FaceTime call to my mom and some summit pictures, other hikers who had taken the standard route started to arrive. I finished up my snack and now knew that I could take the standard route down. I was not sure what kind of shape it was in and did not want to risk trying to use it on the way up. The standard route of Missouri Mountain did have some minor exposure and still had lots of snow on it, but was in great shape all things considered. I passed several other hikers on the way down and was glad, per usual, of my early start time.
The descent of the ridge line involved several sections of glissading (sliding with your mountain axe) and at that time the snow was very wet and soft. Once I was down from the ridge, the remaining hike back to the car was very uneventful. I was back at the car around 11:30AM and was happy to have conquered 14er number 26!
Overall, Missouri Mountain was one of my favorites in the Collegiate Peaks and Sawatch Range. The trail conditions were fairly solid (no pun intended) and offered some of the best summit views because it is set back a bit from the main roads. I would consider Missouri Mountain a great intermediate mountain and one I would recommend.
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