Palisade Mountain, 8264' - 1987 Trip Report
By Alan Silverstein
Saturday, June 6, I finally matched up a name (Palisade
Mountain, 8264') with a prominent peak southwest of Fort
Collins. I'd heard of the mountain for some time, and had long
wondered what that jagged-looking summit west of Loveland was.
I picked up the Drake 7.5-minute quadrangle when a store opened,
and headed up the Big Thompson Canyon looking forward to a
workout.
Palisade Mountain rises above steep cliffs on the north side of
the Canyon just below the town of Drake. It's across from Sheep
Mountain, 8450', a humongous tree-covered hump also shown nicely
on the Drake quad. Unlike Palisade, Sheep Mountain has a
trailhead down by Viestenz-Smith Mountain Park, and a four-mile
trail to the summit.
The canyon road curves around the bottom of Palisade Mountain
right about at the Idylwild spillway and rest area (5970'). I
stopped here at 1050 to study the map, and decided it was a
reasonable starting point for a "direct" ascent -- up the
Palisades. Apparently you can cross a bridge down at V-S Park
and make an easier climb, still without a trail, but it costs
250' (negligeable) and about two miles (significant) more on the
round trip. As nasty looking clouds were already forming to the
west, I decided to go the direct way.
Because of the late start and ominous weather I didn't expect to
make the summit. Most of the time I was in deep gullies,
though, or could get in one if a lightening storm began.
Immediately after leaving the road I had to start scrambling
(using hands as well as feet) most of the time. I worked around
and up a little to the east of a direct line to the summit.
This approach yielded some cactus and talus, but mostly lots of
steep, firm rock, fun and challenging to climb.
To my surprise the clouds dissipated into a vague haze as I
climbed. Before long I was looking way down to the canyon floor
and across (west) to the pinnacles of the Palisades. At any
point I could have headed more east to easier terrain, but I had
a great time route-finding up the solid rock with only
occasional, minor exposure. My limiter wasn't the terrain but
the heat...
Eventually I clambered over an edge and onto the tree-covered
summit ridge. Another ten minutes or so brought me west to the
summit itself, which is marked by a huge wood tripod. It's the
highest of about seven rock knobs, set back from the south
cliffs. You can see it clearly from Fort Collins and Loveland.
The view from the top is nice, but not awesome. On this day it
was roasting hot and sunny on top, calm, and bug-ridden.
After munching and resting I headed back much the same way. I
discovered that the main gully off the ridge about 1/4 mile east
of the summit is a very nice route, full of large, stable
boulders. Steep, but deep in shadows (nice on a hot day). On
the way down I found a large antler draped over a projecting
rock.
My total altitude gain was 2300' in 2:30 (not great, must have
been the hot weather), and it took me 1:45 to return to my car.
It was a good work-up climb except that I should have carried
more than 1-1/2 quarts of water!
I'm discovering that the foothills west of Loveland and Fort
Collins are not really so mysterious. There aren't that many
significant peaks, as you can see on the Larimer County map, and
most of them are visible from one point or another. Peaks like
Sheep, Palisade, White Pine, Buckhorn, and Greyrock form the
lower skyline.
Used here with permission of the author.
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