Hiking Vermillion Peak, Ophir, Colorado
We were having a nice weather window so after climbing Wilson Peak the day before, Mike and I decided to hike Vermillion Peak in Ophir, Colorado the following day. We parked at the same trailhead used to hike to the popular Lake Hope and got an early start again.
We hiked on the trail to Lake Hope for the first 2.25 miles, which is where we then decided to head off trail towards Vermillion. After crossing a fairly swampy meadow full of the most beautiful wildflowers I have seen, we found ourselves at the bottom of a field of talus. We started ascending the talus and found ourselves aiming for the saddle between Fuller Peak and Beattie Peak. This piece of the day took us quite a while as the talus was not stable so we had to be sure about our footing before putting pressure on a rock. Once we made it to the saddle, the next part looked horrible and was something I really wasn’t looking forward to. We found a social trail that cut across the west side of Fuller Peak. This social trail cut across an extremely steep slope that was composed of talus that moved with every step. It was extremely unnerving to traverse across as we would go through parts that had clearly slid recently (because the social trail was covered in those spots). Slow and steady was the name of the game.
After what felt like hours (it was probably 30 mins), we made it to the saddle between Fuller and Vermillion Peak. We started up Vermillion’s southeast ridge on what was a fairly established social trail. The trail had some exposure, but was easy to follow. We eventually came to a gully right below the summit that had clearly gotten a lot of use and was now just loose dirt. We ended up climbing up this part by holding on to the solid rock on climber’s right while trying to find spots to put our feet that didn’t result in us sliding backwards. After making it to the top of this gully, we just had a short little scramble to the top.
Unlike the fourteener the day before, we had this summit all to ourselves. All because it was a few hundred feet lower. After a snack, we started heading back down, knowing the descent was going to take us some time. We followed the same route we took up, and I found the descent on the talus on the west side of Fuller to be my least favorite part of the day. Thankfully, I made it through it and we made it back to the trail in one piece.
Overall, this hike was challenging, but really fun. I think Vermillion is one of the coolest looking mountains I have climbed. With most of our time spent off trail, it involved some route finding and scrambling that challenged us. I also really enjoyed the wildflowers on this hike - I think they were some of the best I’ve seen. I can’t wait for my next trip to the San Juans!
Stats: 8.5 miles, 3200 ft of elevation gain
