firesidestickers – Wild Wanderer

RT Length: 1.49 miles

Elevation Gain: 323’

It’s springtime, and in the spring I either travel to state highpoints, or stay local and hit county highpoints. They traditionally open Rampart Range Road every year on April 1, and when I heard the road was open, I decided to take advantage of a beautiful (if windy) day and hit some highpoints. This is the first of 3 El Paso County highpoints I hiked this day.

I started at the southern entrance to Rampart Range Road, near balanced rock inside Garden of the Gods.

As the sun rose, I was able to see a lot of the Waldo Canyon burn scar. It doesn’t look like much has grown back in the 9 years since the fire.

I drove along the 2WD dirt road for 12 miles, and parked at a small parking area for trail 644. There’s a plaque here commemorating the road

I gathered my hear and continued hiking along the road to the trailhead. It was a short distance (less than a quarter of a mile), and in the summer, you might be able to park at the actual start.

The trailhead starts at a bend in the road, marked by broken barbed wire and hot pink surveyor’s tape. On a topo map it says this is 4WD road 300Q. It’s been a very, very long time since this was ever a road. Now it looks like a teenage hangout/camping area, littered with broken glass and discarded remnants of campfire circles.

I headed northeast, following the ridge to the right

I came to a small dip, where I could clearly see the peak

Now I stayed to the left (north) side of the ridge. There were a lot of downed trees, but nothing that kept me from making it to the peak. There was snow here, but not enough to need traction. I did posthole a bit. I aimed for the small saddle

Once at the saddle there was some class 2 scrambling to do to make it to the summit. This is much easier than it looks.

Here’s a picture of the summit

I knew I was at the summit because there was a summit marker. I left a summit register at the marker

And took a picture at the summit with Pikes Peak in the background

It was very windy, so I didn’t stay long, and quickly retraced my steps back to the saddle. Here’s the overall route

And step by step

Back down the dip, where there are some very faint tire tracks that have now become social/game trails

And following the ridge southwest to the road

I then followed the road back to my truck.

This was a quick and simple hike. Here’s a topo map of my route (I parked just before 644):

Now, on to the next trailhead!

We live 3 hours away from this highpoint, so I’ve been saving it for a bad weather day, or a day in which I wasn’t able to hike but didn’t want to waste staying at home. Imagine my surprise when I asked my daughters if they wanted to go with me, and they said YES!

Since my oldest was going we decided to make this a write off (we’re starting a business) and get some pictures for our facebook page. We collected some stickers and snacks and were on our way.

The drive isn’t very pretty. There’s not much between where I live and the highest point in Kansas except wide, open fields. And no gas stations (this comes into play later). I stopped at the last place to get gas, did some mental calculations and figured I’d have just enough to get there and back without seeing a gas station, and we were on our way.

Also, we brought the cat. Westley is quite the road tripper. He likes to look out the window, and has no problem snuggling up on various laps during the drive. He’s not fond of getting out of the vehicle though.

Finally, after almost 3 hours of driving, we made it to a 12 mile dirt road that took us to the ‘summit’. It’s not a true summit, just the highest point, which was relatively flat. I drove 65mph down those dirt roads, kicking up dust. There was no one to see…

We pulled up and were the only ones at the site. Yep, THIS is the highest point in Kansas

I came prepared with all my gear, but was able to summit in just sandals. I got Rebecca to wear a helmet, and Emily felt confident summiting without gear, while also holding the cat.