South Fork Animas River – Wild Wanderer

RT Length: 14.13 miles

Elevation Gain: 4500’

I parked at 10,000’, just after the town of Eureka. My truck could have driven up the 4WD road, as it was a nicely graded, wide road, but I didn’t know it at the time and figures starting at 10,000’ sounded pretty good.

We were once again experiencing summer storms, so I was up and on the trail at 4am. I followed the road as it rounded the mountainside, heading west.

Suddenly, I saw a fox, about 10 feet in front of me on the trail. I shined my flashlight at him, and said “Hey Fox!” The fox walked up to me, and stood about 2 feet away. He was brown with black feet, and had a piece of grass sticking out from its lips. He looked up at me like a puppy asking for a treat. I wanted nothing more than to pet this cute little guy, but knew his behavior was off for a wild animal. I loudly tapped my trekking pole on a rock and told him to move. He jumped a few feet in the air, then skirted around me. He didn’t leave though, until I did it again.

I continued on in the dark, making great time, until the sun began to rise. That’s when I noticed I was heading the wrong way and realized I’d missed my turn in the dark. I’d gone a mile past my turn, and added 600’ of elevation gain to my day (already taken off my stats). Drat! I turned and ran a mile down the road, to the correct turnoff at 10,500’

I then followed this road, which paralleled the South Fork Animas River

There were a few dispersed campsites along the way. The road ended at a creek crossing. Well, it didn’t end, but you couldn’t drive any further.

I crossed the creek, passed an abandoned mine, and the road curved. This is where the trail began. It’s an unnamed pack trail, and very difficult to follow. Don’t cross the creek.

I passed several large runnels

And noted now that I had a visual my intended decent route was going to need to be modified, as it cliffed out. I resolved to instead take a different ridge down, which looked like it ‘went’ and continued southwest to treeline. Once again, there wasn’t a consistent trail here, but I did come across game trails I utilized when available.

Now at treeline, I needed to access the upper basin. This is how I got there. There were TONS of game trails in the area.

I was headed northwest, aiming for a saddle

Once at the saddle, I turned left to ascend the ridge and follow it south. Initially I hit a scree-filled gully, but it was short.

I then hit some rocky tundra area, but once I ascended this I hit a class 1 trail. This trail took me up and over PT 13060, then it went downhill while I followed the tundra towards Tower Mountain.

Here’s my route up Tower Mountain (which has a tower…)

And a few step by step pictures (this is all class 2)

I summited Tower Mountain at 8:50am

Tower Mountain:

From Tower you can see Dome Mountain to the east, but it’s not a simple ridge walk to get there.

I followed the ridge to the arrow, and then I descended (arrow) to avoid some nasty terrain just before making it to Dome along the ridge.

Here are some pictures of the ridge

Looking back at Tower

This is where the ‘fun’ begins, and doesn’t end until you’re back on the trail you hiked in on… I left the ridge here, at 13100’, and descended into Cataract Basin, making sure to stay high. No trails here, unless you stumble upon a game trail.

I then ascended the saddle between PT 13321 and Dome Mountain. There was a lot of scree here.

This is my general ascent route up Dome Mountain. I just went straight up the face, heading east. Now is a good time to look at your route.

Here are some step by step pictures. Now is a good time to put on your helmet if you haven’t already

This is difficult class 3, easy class 4, and most of it is pick your own route. There were plenty of hand and footholds, but there was a lot of balancing involved, and not a lot of room. Very little margin for error. This is the route I took

That was your warm up. Now to ascend the larger wall. Same rules apply, but with an added degree of difficulty

Woot! Now some tundra to the difficult part

The last 300 feet of climbing is done on very loose rock. Trust nothing. It’s all class 3, but the terrain is rotten. Here are some photos. I continued east, and headed straight along the ridge to the summit.

I summited Dome Mountain at 10:45am

Dome Mountain:

There were a ton of bees and flies at the summit, so I didn’t stay long. I was making this a loop, and wanted to head north into the basin I’d hiked in, towards the South Fork Animas River. I wasn’t 100% sure this would work, but as I looked this morning from below I knew if I could get down the rocky area I’d be good to go. I headed south and followed the ridge. This was also class 3-easy 4, but much more stable and easier to navigate than the ridge I’d taken up. There are rocky chimneys to descend, but mostly tundra. If I were just doing Dome, this is the route I’d take up and down.