Hiking Castle Peak, Colorado

Castle Peak is the highest summit of the Elk Mountain Range at 14,279 feet. On a recent trip to Colorado to visit friends, Johnny and I climbed it. Read on to hear about our hike, learn more about the peak and get my tips for climbing a fourteener without dying.

Castle Peak, Colorado

This hike is one of the most strenuous things I’ve ever done, but it actually wasn’t our first Castle Peak experience. John and I climbed it back in 2011 when we lived in Grand Junction, Colorado.

The first time around we were a hot mess. We weren’t prepared for what climbing a fourteener entailed. We started way too late in the day and we accidentally took a serious detour off the trail that cost us a ton of time. Still, we reached the summit and were rewarded with the breathtaking view.

This time around, although we were much more prepared, we dealt with a totally different set of challenges in the form of unfavorable terrain conditions and altitude sickness. We did reach the summit, but getting there was a much tougher battle physically.

Between these two hikes I learned a lot about what to expect, both in terms of the trail and your own physical preparation.

Getting To Castle Peak

To begin climbing Castle Peak, there are a few different places you can start. Your starting point will be determined by how far you want to hike and the type of vehicle you have.

If you have a normal car, you pretty much have no choice but to start all the way from the bottom at the main trailhead parking area. Follow these directions to get there. It’s about 20 minutes outside of Aspen; your first mental test will be avoiding the overwhelming urge to ditch the hike in favor of a trip to one of the area’s many day spas. We parked at the trailhead for both of our Castle Peak hikes, each of which took around ten hours round trip.

If you have a vehicle with good four-wheel drive, you can drive up a little higher to the junction of Pearl Pass and Castle Creek Road. Be sure to get there early if this is your plan, as there are only a few places to park. This will knock about 60-90 minutes off your hike in either direction.

If you have a really good off-road vehicle, like a jeep with high clearance that can cross water, slush and serious rocky terrain, you can make it all the way up to Montezuma Basin at 12,800 feet. Starting from here, I would guess that you could do the hike in four or five hours round trip. Personally I feel like starting that high up is kind of cheating, but maybe I’m just bitter because the whole lower portion of the hike I was praying for some kindhearted jeep driver to come along and give us a lift.

What To Pack For Your Hike

The first thing to know about hiking a fourteener is that it’s going to take a long time. I mean, duh, but this was my biggest misconception the first time around. It’s one thing to think about hiking for eight or ten hours; it’s another to bring along enough food, water and clothing options that you’ll be comfortable while actually doing it (spoiler alert: you won’t be comfortable while doing it).

The next thing to plan for is how much water to bring. I’ve read a lot of different opinions on this, but for me, about one liter for every two to three hours of hiking is a good rule of thumb.

Bring snacks. Lots of them. You’ll be feeling pretty drained by the time you’re nearing the summit, and that extra energy boost from eating something really makes a difference. I suggest almonds, trail mix, Clif bars, and at least one solid food item like a peanut butter and banana sandwich. You probably won’t want to sit down and eat a full-on lunch, but it’s nice to have at least one substantial item like a sandwich to keep you feeling full.

The clothing and gear you need will depend a lot on the season. Both of our Castle Peak trips were in late summer; the first time there was still a pretty substantial amount of snow at that altitude, but the second time there was no snow whatsoever. You may have no way of knowing the conditions until you get out there, so here’s what I suggest wearing/bringing:

• Approach shoes, like plain old tennis shoes, for the lower, less rugged part of the trail
• Waterproof hiking boots or trail running shoes (here are mine—the waterproof part is key for if there’s snow or slush)
• An extra pair of hiking socks (it feels great to switch into a clean, dry pair halfway through)
• A lightweight, breathable base layer (NOT cotton. When you sweat, it gets damp and stays that way!)
• A light jacket or hoodie
• A waterproof outer layer (I wear the outer shell of this awesome jacket)
• Paper towels (for snack cleanup, pee breaks, nose blowing, etc.)

I packed it all in this backpack, which I’ve mentioned on this blog a few times now. It goes with me everywhere and holds a ton!

The Castle Peak Trail

This Castle Peak route guide is the best one I’ve seen. It contains detailed instructions for each section of the trail with photos to help you find your way.

The first time around, we thought, ‘it’s a trail! We’ll just follow it!’ We were wrong.

In some places, there’s a really obvious and well-marked trail. But in others—and especially when there’s a lot of snow—the “trail” is either hard to see or non-existent.

For our most recent hike, we printed out the route map old-school style, and it was much easier to stay on course.

The conditions vary quite a bit over the different sections of the trail. You can expect some loose rock scrambling, big boulders, potentially deep snow, and steep uphill inclines at the end. It’s strenuous, but if you’re in generally good shape, it’s nothing you can’t handle. Believe it or not, I actually thought the hike was easier with a lot of snow on the ground. There was more solid footing, whereas without all the snow there were tons of little rocks sliding out from beneath us on the steeper sections of the trail, which made it harder to keep our balance.

The hike is physically challenging for sure, but it’s just as much mental. There were so many points where I would have given my right thumb for a helicopter to swoop in and carry us the rest of the way to the top (or straight to McDonald’s). I just kept telling myself to take one more step. More than anything else, don’t forget to keep taking big, deep breaths.

Altitude Sickness

I never really believed altitude sickness was real—that is, until I wanted to simultaneously puke my brains out and faint during our second Castle Peak hike. The nauseous, lightheaded, overall-horrible feeling hit John and I right around the same time as we passed 13,000 feet. His also came with a pounding headache.

At first, neither of us mentioned it because we thought we were just being wimps and needed to push through it, but eventually John said he needed to sit down and I was like omgthankyouimdying.

While neither of us felt so bad that we absolutely couldn’t keep going, it made the rest of the hike so much more difficult and slow. We took a ton of breaks, sitting down to rest every 10-15 minutes. We did make it to the top, but it probably wasn’t the safest thing to do given how we were feeling. We both started to feel better as soon as we got back down to the lower portion of the trail.

It’s worthwhile to note that we didn’t experience altitude sickness during our first Castle Peak hike, probably because at that time we were already living in Colorado and more accustomed to a higher altitude. From what I’ve read, the best way to prevent altitude sickness is to take your hike slower, i.e. by spacing it out over a couple days. The lower portion of the Castle Peak trail has some really beautiful campsites, so that’s something you could easily do by camping for a night in between hiking. If you’re traveling from somewhere closer to sea level for your hike, you might want to seriously consider making this part of your travel plan so you don’t get hit with the same crummy feeling we did.

Overall, Castle Peak was a very challenging experience both times I’ve hiked it, but the views at the top make the struggle along the way worthwhile. It’s truly breathtaking, and a pretty badass feeling to know your own two legs carried you all the way up there.

Next time we’re in Colorado I’d love to try a different—perhaps slightly less demanding—hike. If you have questions about Castle Peak or hiking in general, leave them in the comments below!