Collegiate Peaks West 2 Colorado Trail Guide

March 2, 2021 The Virtual Sherpa Comments 0 Comment

Collegiate Peaks West 2 Quick Facts

The Colorado Trail is a 485 mile hike that starts near Denver and ends in Durango, Colorado. Collegiate Peaks West 2 offers hikers the last long segment of the trail at 25.9 miles with over 6,100ft of elevation gain. Although grueling, this segment is drop dead gorgeous for 75% of the hike. Hikers will start by climbing up to stunning Lake Ann and Lake Ann Pass before descending and hiking through miles of thick forests and switchbacks. The segment ends at equally stunning Cottonwood Pass with amazing views of the Sawatch Range.

Collegiate Peaks West 2 Quick Facts

Virtual Trail Guide: Colorado Trail Collegiate Peaks West 2

Colorado Trail Collegiate Peaks West 2 Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5 Stars)

Distance: 25.9 Miles One Way

Elevation Start: 10,177ft

Highest Point: 12,588ft

Total Elevation Gain: 6,122ft

Estimated Time to Complete: 12-14 Hours One Way

Difficulty: Strenuous Difficulty System Explained

Class: Class 1 What does this mean?

Season: Late June- Early November (Expect snow outside of this period)

Weather: Check the Weather Forecast

Directions to Collegiate Peaks West 2

Trailhead: Sheep Gulch & Cottonwood Pass

Getting Here: Start Trailhead (Sheep Gulch): To access the trailhead, turn onto Chaffee County Road 390 (20 miles south of Leadville, 14.5 miles north of Buena Vista). Take 390 (starts off paved, turns into a well maintained dirt road) for 9.5 miles until you reach the signed trailhead on your right.

End Trailhead (Cottonwood Pass): From Buena Vista, take Main Street west which turns into State Highway 306. Follow this for 18.5 miles to reach the summit of the pass. The road is paved the entire way.

Fees: There is no fee to hike Collegiate Peaks West 2 of the Colorado Trail.

Parking: Sheep Gulch trailhead is relatively quiet, even on weekends. The lot is small, fitting about 5-10 cars MAX with no restrooms. Cottonwood Pass is usually very busy but can fit between 20-25 cars. Both areas we parked overnight with no issues at all.

Summary

Camping: Collegiate Peaks West 02 has camping options but they are a bit trickier than some of the previous segments. In general, camping before Lake Ann Pass is not hard to come by. However, once you get close to the pass, camping options will be slim from mile 8.9 – 11.9. From this point on, you will have a variety of dry and wet camping spots through the end of the segment. We ended up camping around mile 16.5 which was dry but offered relatively good set-up.

Dogs: Colorado Trail Collegiate Peaks West 2 is dog friendly but a LONG hike for all pups. Much of this hike is in the wilderness area so please keep dogs leashed.

Access to Water: Colorado Trail Collegiate Peaks West 2 offers plenty of water sources. The start of the segment and end of the segment are the most dry in addition to miles 8.9 – 12.9 and 13.8-17. In addition, as you get closer to Cottonwood Pass and the end of the segment water is scarce.

Trail X Factors: Miles & Elevation Gain

Collegiate Peaks 02 is the 2nd longest segment of the entire Colorado Trail and has the most elevation gain of any segment hiking north to south. All of this means that you will want to stretch this hike into 2 days. Even splitting the gain and mileage will leave you wanting to take a break from hiking. It was somewhat demoralizing for us to have gained all of that steep elevation gain up Lake Ann Pass only to lose it right after and then regain it up Cottonwood Pass to end the hike. The hot temperatures on this day certainly did not help our spirits.

Hike Tip(s): If you plan on segment hiking the Colorado Trail, specifically this segment, be aware that you will be adding on an extra .2 miles and 200ft of climbing from Sheep Gulch TH. If you are segment or through-hiking the Colorado Trail and want to add a 14er, Huron Peak is a great option. It will add about 3.75 miles of hiking with 3,500ft of gain or so. However, the views from the summit are outstanding and it’s a relatively easy hike.

Best Views: Collegiate Peaks West 2 has some amazing views. The start of the segment alone is just breathtaking with views of neighboring Huron Peak, Ice Mountain, North Apostle and the stunning basin to the north of these mountains. Lake Ann was our favorite single viewpoint from the entire Colorado Trail to date. Lake Ann Pass wasn’t as cool as Hope Pass, but still offered insane views to the north and south. Ending at Cottonwood Pass was also stunning in nearly all directions with more 14ers, 13ers and beautiful Sawatch Range Peaks.

Trail Route Collegiate Peaks West 2

Gear Needed

Jackie’s Gear:

Juno’s Gear

Colorado Trail Books:

Full Version
Pocket Guide
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Our Trip Colorado Trail Collegiate Peaks 2 – September 2020

Our original plan was to hike CW02 – CW04 in one weekend. Thank god we decided that was too much because honestly Collegiate Peaks West 2 was almost too much for us. Summer was coming to an end but this trip’s temperatures sure didn’t feel like it. Jackie, Juno and I started hiking the segment at 7AM after camping near Cottonwood Pass the night before. The views up to Lake Ann and its namesake pass where beautiful but the hiking was tough and the weather was VERY hot. We made it about 16.5 miles before calling it quits for the night.

The next day was more of the same monotonous forest hiking. We saw a moose in Prospector Gulch which was cool, but that was really the only high point of the morning until we started the climb up to Cottonwood Pass. Another grueling climb in unseasonably high temperatures. The views were extremely rewarding but both Jackie and I felt burnt out on the Colorado Trail. After reaching the end of the segment, we decided to take a few weekends off to re-spark the joy and sense of adventure we both wanted while hiking the Colorado Trail.

You can watch the virtual trail guide of Colorado Trail Collegiate Peaks 2 below and check out some pictures from our hike.