denny creek trailhead – Wild Wanderer

RT Length: 9.58 miles

Elevation Gain: 4315’

The drive in was icy in spots, with about 3 inches of fresh snow on the road. I could tell a vehicle had made it to the trailhead at least an hour earlier, because there was snow over the tracks and it hadn’t been snowing on my drive. There were two other vehicles in the lot, which looked to be boondockers. I backed my truck in and got out my gear. The lot is huge, and since the road is closed for winter just past the trailhead there is a lot of room for vehicles carrying snowmobiles. When I got back later in the day there were no less than 40 large vehicles with trailers for hauling snowmobiles in the parking lot and lining the road.

I was on the trail a little late today, around 6am. I knew it was supposed to be cold and I didn’t want to start too early: the sun is my friend when it’s cold out! The trail starts at the north end of the parking area. There are trail signs here.

It’s winter, but since it hasn’t snowed heavily for a few days there was a trench in place, making this a class 1 trail all the way to treeline.

I followed the trail for 1.5 miles to a junction, then turned right, following the trail northeast towards Mt Yale.

After the junction the elevation gain picked up and the trail became icy in areas

At treeline the elevation gain became more intense. I kept heading northeast, rounding this hill

And coming to a larger hill to navigate. Here I passed two male hikers in their early 20s. I’m not sure when they started this morning, but they looked to be in good spirits and more than happy for me to start making tracks. Here’s how I navigated this obstacle

I wasn’t yet into the upper basin however. Here’s an overview of the rest of the route

And here’s step by step to the ridge. The snow was actually a few feet deep in areas, and I postholed a bit. No ice axe or snowshoes were necessary. I wore microspikes for the entire hike.

The weather was very nice today, but cold. Temperatures ranged from -3 degrees to 13 degrees, before windchill. I kept pumping my fingers back and forth to keep them warm, stopping every few feet to clap them together briskly. Strangely, my toes didn’t seem to get that cold. Luckily for me, this is my 4^th summit of Mt Yale, so I didn’t need a map: I knew where I was going and just kept heading towards the saddle. Once on the saddle I turned right and followed the icy ridge southeast towards the summit. Here’s the overall route

It was frigid, and icy, and windy, and cold! You can tell how cold by looking at the boulders

Here’s a look at the summit of Mt Yale

I summited Mt Yale at 11:05am. I was upset to find the camera I’d placed in-between my jackets to stay warm had once again frozen, so I had to use my cell phone for pictures.

It was very, very cold, so I didn’t stay long. I turned and headed back down the ridge

A shadowselfie just for fun!

Here’s the route down from the saddle

After making it back to the saddle I turned left and followed my tracks back down

About halfway back to treeline I passed the two young hikers again. They looked exhausted, but in good spirits. It was their first winter 14er, and I wished them luck. They were more than glad to be following my tracks. Here are my tracks back down to treeline.

Once back at treeline I followed the trench back to the trailhead. This part was fun; due to the light snow that fell overnight the wind was causing the snow on the branches to lift into the air and swirl to the ground. It was like it was snowing on a bluebird day.

I made it back to the trailhead at 12pm, making this a 9.58 mile hike with 4315’ of elevation gain in 6 hours. There were TONS of snowmobilers in the parking lot: more than I’ve ever seen at a trailhead before. They were loud, and I was glad I was done with my hike. No wonder I hadn’t seen any animals today!

Here’s a topo map of my route:

I usually wear sandals while driving home so my feet can dry out. Today, after putting on my sandals, I accidentally stepped in snow with my left foot and it instantly triggered an attack. My toes turned blue and stiffened. As I’m writing this it’s been almost 24 hours, and I still don’t have feeling in the two smallest toes on my left foot. Luckily however, they are now a normal color.

The Mt Yale Summit Sticker can be bought here

RT Length: 10.72 miles

Elevation Gain: 4839’

Note: I do not recommend doing this hike in reverse.

Two days before this hike I’d driven down Cottonwood Pass and noticed the route for Mt Yale and Mascot Peak looked virtually free of snow, whereas the other peaks in the area seemed to be holding a lot more snow.

I arrived at the Denny Creek Trailhead and was on the trail at 4:40am. There was only one other vehicle in the lot, which could hold around 40 cars. I’m not going to go into great detail about the hike up Mt Yale because it’s very well documented and mostly a class 1 trail. I’ll just add a few pictures of today’s route.

There’s a great trailhead sign indicating the start of the trail at the north end of the parking area

There were three frozen creek crossings, all easy to cross on logs (but remember, ice is slippery, so take care)

The trail was well packed to treeline. No traction was necessary.

I saw a rabbit directly on the trail. This rabbit didn’t seem to mind my presence, and refused to move/run away until I was about 2 feet away from it. It ran and ‘hid’ under a pine tree, but since it’s now white I had no trouble seeing it behind the branches.

Once at treeline there was still snow, but it was easy to follow the trail to the saddle, and then southeast to the summit of Mt Yale.

The summit of Mt Yale is the highest point at the southeastern part of the ridge.

I summited Mt Yale at 8:20am. There was a sign at the summit (I don’t remember it being there last time I summited, and I’m surprised no one has taken it back down/hidden/destroyed it yet)

Mt Yale:

Mt Yale was where the tracks in the snow stopped, but Mt Yale wasn’t my primary objective today so I didn’t stay long on the summit. Instead I continued heading southeast, making my own tracks, postholing at times.

I came to a gully that I was going to descend before heading to the saddle between Mt Yale and Mascot Peak. There was more snow in this gully than the pictures show, and I was glad I wasn’t doing this in winter. A ice axe would have been helpful today, and I should have put on my spikes, but instead I balanced myself with my trekking pole on the slippery snow and made cautious decisions about foot placement. I descended 1122’ to the saddle.

Here’s a look at my route from Mt Yale from the Yale/Mascot saddle. The snow at the top was more troublesome than it looks. There also seem to be several ways to descend to the saddle.

From the saddle the route up to Mascot Peak was simple, straightforward, and not as steep as it looked from Mt Yale. This was the easiest part of the uphill climbing for the day. The only difficulty was the wind.

I summited Mascot Peak at 10am

Mascot Peak:

I was making this a loop today, so after a few pictures I continued southwest down the ridge. I stuck to the top of the ridge. There’s a great view of Cottonwood Pass until you get to treeline, so as long as you stay on the ridge it’s difficult to get lost.

Here’s looking back at Mascot Peak and Mt Yale from the ridge

Just before treeline I left the ridge and headed right (west) down what could loosely be called a gully.

I aimed for an old, solitary tree standing amongst the rocks, and then followed the gully as it descended southwest to Denny Gulch

I kept following the obvious curve as it headed to treeline (no trail here, just keep taking the path of least resistance towards Denny Gulch)

In case you want to do this route in reverse, here’s looking back at the route from before treeline and up to the ridge. I would not have wanted to upclimb this, and instead recommend taking the class 1 trail up to Mt Yale. This was very steep, and fun to scree surf down.

Once at treeline I kept aiming for Denny Gulch, following a drainage of sorts southwest

It’s obvious when you reach the gulch, as the mountain starts to back up again. There was a small stream running, and I decided to follow this stream south. I kept crossing and recrossing the stream to find the best route. There were a few animal trails here, and a lot of ducking, climbing, and bushwhacking over fallen trees and through overgrown bushes to get back to the road.

I could have followed Denny Gulch all the way to the road, but ended up coming across a well-defined game trail that headed northwest. I took that for a short distance, and it turned into the remnants of an old mining road that looked like it hadn’t been used in half a century or so.