Standard Approach up Baldwin Gulch
Mount Antero is known for its gemstones, notable quartz and aquamarine. Unfortunately, when I went, there was snow everywhere so it made gem searching rather difficult. On the good side, I practically had the peak to myself. There was a party of five hikers but I passed them and got far enough in front where I was able to enjoy a 45-minute lounge in the warm sun on the summit.
This outstanding view of Antero occurs just after turning off highway 24. The aspens were great this weekend but they were definitely on the way out. The best aspen weekends were the previous two in which I soloed Belford and Missouri.
I got a fairly late start on Antero. I left home around 6:30 am and, because of the long 4×4 road up Baldwin Gulch, I didn’t actually start hiking until 10. No matter though, I was the first on the summit and still had plenty of time when I got back to visit St. Elmo. Plus, the summer thunderstorm season was over. There would be no weather troubles on this perfect day!
The road is not rough at all. The worst part is at the very beginning. So if you can handle that, you can get up as high as you want. There is one stream crossing but it’s a breeze too. A lot of people park at the small parking lot before crossing the stream. I continued on. The road was even smoother past the creek! However, snow patches were becoming more common. I parked about halfway up the road mainly because I was itching to start the hike but I also didn’t feel like getting onto some slick snow. The roads turned out to be OK all the way up to the base of Antero. Now, you can continue up the jeep trail on the slopes of Antero. The road is in very good shape. However, it’s very very narrow. There’s barely enough room for one car. I’d hate to meet another car coming down! If you go, pick a Tuesday and go early, you’ll hopefully have the place to yourself. This day, however, the slopes of Antero were not an option for 4×4′s; large drifts lay across the roads.
Hiking up these switchbacks is so easy. It makes Antero a pleasure to hike up – if you’re in the mood for a mellow stroll at high altitude, which I was. However, some of the drifts were pretty high so I ended up postholing quite a bit. I got tired of this and figured if I was postholing, I might as well do it on a more direct route. So I skipped the final two or three switchbacks and hiked directly up the gully to the highest road. It was actually quite easy. At this point, there was a climbers trail heading up to the upper slopes. The road continued on. I slowly crossed a huge snowdrift and hiked up the trail to the flat area at about 12,800. From here you have fantastic and dramatic views of Shavano and Tabeguache.
At this point, the hiking was very easy for a while. There was very little elevation gain as the trail rejoined the road and the road swung around to the east side of the mountain and began a few more small switchbacks. I’d passed the 5 climbers when I exited onto the climbers trail and they were nowhere in sight. Before beginning the switchbacks, I sat down and took a break, ate, and took some pictures, including a self portrait. After climbing up the final switchbacks, you arrive at a wide saddle. At this saddle is a small parking lot (sort of) for cars. This is as high as you can go in an automobile and if you make it this far, Antero is within 30 minutes! Of course, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who would call this an official climb of Antero. Anyway, from this saddle, you get the first view of the final ridge that leads to the summit.
The ridge has some fun scrambling on it but you certainly don’t have to do that if you don’t want to. I went over the top of the ridge most of the way but wasn’t interested in doing anything to difficult or dangerous since I was by myself. The wind started picking up here quite a bit. I had to put on my gloves and hat. At the end of the semi-scrambling, you begin to gain the final altitude. The ridge widens dramatically to a big talus slope similar to Mount Princeton or Grays Peak.
Note the trail that leads to the right around the sub-peak. This is a very deceptive trail! I decided I would try to spice up the hike by taking this trail back to the flats. Boy, was that a mistake! The trail indeed started leading there and it was easy hiking. Then suddenly, it ended! Either it was hike all the way back up the trail to the saddle and hike back down the road, or descend to the road below. Descending was certainly shorter but it looked like a messy talus hike. It was! It took me quite a while to get back down to the road. If you’re ever tempted to take this trail, don’t! It’s not worth it. The road back offers much easier hiking and nicer views.
After taking this picture and a mega panoramic picture that ranged all the way from Shavano to Princeton, I called home, ate, and took about a 15 minute catnap. The wind was very calm up here. Very pleasant. After I hiked back down to the aformentioned talus field, I arrived at the high road on Antero. Instead of taking the road all the way back, I took the direct route and followed a gully out. It turned out to be a good choice (though my 35mm Canon camera took about a 200 foot tumble – thank goodness for my case) and I was out in no time. I sauntered down the rest of the road back to my jeep then headed to St. Elmo. St. Elmo turned out to be a nice side-trip. There’s also several other ghost towns in that area – Iron City, Tincup, and Romely (I think it was Romely).
