Hiking our FIRST 14er and the HIGHEST point in Colorado: Mount Elbert at 14,440 ft (North Trail)

Colorado is home to 58 mountain peaks that are over 14,000 feet which are nicknamed 14ers and today we're not only going to attempt to climb our first 14er but also the highest point in Colorado Mount Elbert. At 14,440 feet tall Mount Elbert is the second highest point in the continental US just 65 feet short of Mount Whitney in California but despite being the highest peak in the state it's said to be one of the There are a few different trails to summit Mount Elbert and after reading tons of reviews and looking at routes we decided to do the north trail which is the shortest and most popular route at about 9.3 miles and 4,471 feet of elevation gain. You may remember that last summer we hiked to the tallest point in New Mexico Wheeler Peak which is 13,161 feet. It was a huge struggle at times but we feel better prepared this time. We have spent the last month in Colorado and we spent the last five days at over 10,000 feet in Leadville to acclimate to hopefully make the hike slightly easier for us. We're starting the hike at 4 30 in the morning because afternoon storms are a really common thing here in Colorado in the summer and the general rule is to be off the summit of a 14er by noon at the latest that way you can get back down into the trees before any lightning or storms arrive. I've been stalking the weather all week long using a bunch of different sites like mountain forecast to just try to see if the conditions would be good for today. The morning looks pretty good afternoon looks a little iffy so we're getting a really early start so we can hopefully beat any rain or storms. We're doing this hike in late June and the last mile of the road to the main trailhead is closed so we're gonna have to walk that mile so it's gonna add two miles to our hike which will make it about 11.3 but we do hear that the road will be opening up soon. Hiking in the dark is kind of scary but there's been at least 10 people who have hiked before us so we kept saying oh they've scared all the animals away because there are bears there are mountain lions and something just darted right in front of us on the trail no idea what it was. That's kind of scary. We're trying to make lots of noise because as Katherine just said something just ran across and we're not 100 sure what it was that was pretty scary so we're trying to make all the noise. All right we're 2.2 miles in that's where we started that was the official trailhead right here we've gone up some of these switchbacks still have a long ways to go but we've gained about a thousand feet so far and we're feeling really good. I'm feeling better than I thought I would but I don't want to speak too soon. Kona is crushing it though she kicked butt last year at the New Mexico high point was not tired at all while I was actually dying so she does really really well with these kind of hikes. She probably won't be tired till we get back to the van later. We've just about made it out of the tree line and the sun's coming up as you can tell and you just instantly get hit with some amazing views. You can see Leadville way off in the distance you can really tell how high we've already climbed it's already super gorgeous. It's getting harder and harder to breathe and the wind's picking up since we got above the trees it's really really cold oh we got this though I'm determined to make it. And the one with a little bit of snow over my shoulder here I believe that's the top of Colorado Mount Elbert that's the one we're gunning for. If you google the height of Mount Elbert you'll see three different heights 14 433, 14 439, and 14 440. We read that in 2002 they like resurveyed a bunch of mountain peaks and changed the elevation of the height and so it says in 2002 it became 14 440 but tons of people still use 14 433 but we're going with 14 440 because those extra seven feet make the whole make a difference. There's the Twin Lakes area on the hill just on the other side of the lakes I'm pretty sure that's where we've been staying the last few nights we've just been staring down Elbert all week we're getting so dang close pretty sure crossing our fingers that that's the top there definitely less than a mile probably less than half a mile but seems like a mile in elevation it's it's really steep this last section here pretty tough this whole past 30 minutes had my eyes on this one right behind me thinking it was the one thought the false summit was that hill down there but still got a long way to go it's that one there it's pretty dang demoralizing i'm not gonna lie when i led when i saw that one i let out a loud f word oh f bombs were dropped by me as well so demoralizing i'll still do it you got it just thought we were a lot closer than that now there's probably a good half a mile made it i can't believe it oh it feels good good first 14 year here for very long it is way too cold way too windy it is just so bad i'm trying to keep myself warm but the views yeah you obviously have 360 views just tons and tons of mountain peaks you can see super far it's an amazing i still can't believe we did it i know i didn't there were some times there it was a mental battle not sure if we were gonna make it or not but we are gonna head down now hopefully it's a little easier a lot easier i hope it is amazing how much my mood changed when we started going downhill it is so much easier so far it's steep and it's rocky but my lungs just feel so much happier and you can tell there are a lot of clouds moving in so we got up here at a really good time it took us four and a half hours to get to the top obviously it should take less time to get down and we're gonna be booking it down to get back into the trees in case any of these turn into something that we don't want to be in this is the one that i thought was the summit and we're back in the trees which was definitely the easiest part of the trail so we're hoping we can just hustle back because we're very tired and hungry we made it back to the van it has never felt so good to sit down and like comfortable not on a rock so according to all trails our total distance was 12 miles so a little bit more than we thought and that includes two miles of just walking that road so for most people doing this hike it would be around 10 and then our total time was seven hours 45 minutes and our moving time was around six hours 37 minutes we took about i guess a little over an hour of just breaks along the way that uh hike was it was tough there was yeah it was just tough it was not only a physical struggle a mental struggle it was it was an experience probably probably one of the hardest if not the hardest hike we've ever done but we've now done four state high points we've done colorado texas new mexico and south dakota we don't plan to do them all but it is fun to do them when it's something that we're actually physically capable of we just headed into leadville which is right by mount elbert and is actually the highest elevated incorporated city in the united states at 10 152 feet similar to the other towns we have visited in colorado leadville was a mining town starting with the gold in the 1860s but ultimately booming with silver and becoming one of the world's largest and notorious mining camps the city is full of outdoor activities with tons of mining history to experience and it's one of the most well-preserved towns in colorado with extremely old authentic and charming historic buildings we've spent the last five days here camping at an epic free spot at twin lakes walking around town and on part of the mineral belt trail which is a super cool 11.6 mile biking and walking path that is basically an outdoor museum but for now we're going to continue a tradition we started last year in new mexico eating pizza after we summit the highest point in the state we came to a spot called high mountain pies which may be the highest elevated pizza place in the united states and they're known for having some pretty unique ingredient pizzas so the pizza i got is the cast iron it comes with ground bison two different kinds of wilted onions there's some uh rosemary red potatoes on here and then it has a garlic oil base and then also a sour cream lisano drizzle i'm not sure what that means but it smells dang good this looks like it's loaded with flavor get a nice little slice oh man i think i got a little bit of everything in that the garlic oil base on the bottom the crust here is really nice and and soft and a little bit of chew to it the sour cream is delicious the bison ground bison is delicious and then also the uh red potato just like kind of gives it like a different little flavors kind of an unexpected earthy flavor and the sour cream drizzle just kind of brings it all together oh and the onions give a little bit of a sweetness to it this is unlike anything i've ever had very unique and i got the san luis on the gluten-free crust it's actually today's special and it has braised pork and ranchero sauce green chilies manchego cheese with fresh avocado and cilantro it's kind of like a mexican pizza i've never had anything like this before that tastes like a taco on a pizza the pork is so tender the sauce is so good the gluten-free crust is really thin it's really crunchy so it's kind of like a hard shell taco pizza oh this is delicious also the avocado gives it such a nice freshness clearly having no issues finishing my pizza we absolutely demolished those pizzas and next up we are probably gonna go to sleep we're really tired but tomorrow we're gonna head to our final area of colorado at least for this trip rocky mountain national park my face is frozen