We headed up Boreas Road to the top of Boreas Pass for this hike. The road to Boreas Pass is a fantastic place to see the fall colors. One section of the road goes through an aspen grove. If you time it right it’s absolutely gorgeous. The leaves are changing a little later this year so when we were there on September 19th it was still a little early. Some trees were changing but most were still green. But back to the Boreas Mountain hike.
Starting on Black Powder Pass
This hike starts at the trailhead for Black Powder Pass. There’s a parking area by the section house, some historical information, a caboose, and the trailhead over to the left. The trail takes you up to the saddle between Bald Mountain and Boreas Mountain. Be sure and take in the views from the saddle. This hike starts high in elevation so there are views pretty much the entire hike. Some people stop here. At this point, your stats would be approximately 1.7 miles and 671 feet of elevation. The trail continues up Bald Mountain, which is a little further with more elevation than the way we went, bushwacking up Boreas Mountain.
Heading up Boreas Mountain
After leaving the saddle and heading up the ridge you come to a little bump up of rock. There’s no reason to go up this as you just have to go back down the other side. There was some discussion about it in our group but the we ended up going around the front of it instead of following a somewhat visible trail behind it. The trail looked sketchy. The front side was easily navigated even without a trail. From there we continued up the ridge. Then, we came to an uphill of loose rock. You can navigate your way around the front of it too and avoid the bonus elevation. The loose rock is not too bad for footing if you use reasonable care. At some point we discovered a trail through the rock and followed that. The high point of Boreas Mountain was up to the left. Some hikers in our group continued below it and came up the back side. My approach was more direct up the front. I think it was shorter and pretty equal in difficulty.
At the Top
There was a wind break at the top where we were able to catch our breath and have some lunch. My GPS said we were at 13,100. Boreas Mountain is officially said to be at 13,082 so it confirmed we made it to the summit. More amazing views could be seen from the top. We went down a different way than we went up. It was a more direct path that was steep and covered with scree. Probably not the best choice but we all made it. Hiking poles we’re a must for the way down. By the time we made it back to our cars our total mileage was just 4.4 miles and about 2,000 feet in elevation gain.
Like to hike?
Read about some of our other hikes
Hiking Mt Elbert, the tallest 14er in Colorado
Mt Royal hike, right in Frisco
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