Trip

Hiking – Bison Peak

This is one of my favorite hikes because of its spectacular rock formations and broad high plateau. In addition, it is South facing and melts out quickly. I was able to summit it 3/15/23. The downside is that it's a 1.5 hour drive from Morrison. We will start at the Ute Creek Trailhead. The first 2 miles of the trail are gentle. After this point, although the map shows us following Ute Creek, the creek is apparently underground and there is no more water after this point. The next 2 miles climb steeply on orange "kitty litter" fine gravel surface that is somewhat easy to slip on coming down, even though there is normally no snow here. On my March 15 scouting mission the trail was 80% snow free up to this point (11,200'). The next mile is not quite as steep, and had 1.5-2' of packed snow in mid-March. Once you emerge above treeline, another world of large and unusual rock formations reveals itself. It reminds me of the land of the giants that Jack discovers after climbing the beanstalk. There is little if any scrambling involved, unless we see some extra credit we want to do.