Baldy Alto, San Luis Peak

Baldy Alto - 4177M

163M Prominence

38.005053 -106.921787

July 31, 2024

Colorado Trail detour

San Luis Peak - 4274M

952M Prominence

37.986685 -106.931435

July 31, 2024

Colorado Trail detour

On the morning of July 31 I woke up at 4 AM in an effort to beat any storms that might happen at 14 000 feet and to get as long a day as possible in. Today's mission was loosely recommended to me by a fellow named tom who I met in Salida. He had told me about a detour he had created/hiked a few days ago in order to connect Baldy Alto and San Luis peak, as well as do a bit of off trail exploring. Once I got to the turn in the FSR that we discussed, I dove into the bush. The vegetation started off quite tame and I could make pretty good time as far as bushwhacking goes. I got a bit off track and ended up going towards the next valley over, and ended up hiking along a marsh for a while, before re-assessing what my route should be, and working my way up to tree line. The shrubbery got a bit more dense, and there were endless fallen trees to maneuver myself over. I was following game trails for a long time, but after nearly 2 hours of crawling around dead Pine and Aspen, I made it up to the alpine. The hike up to Baldy Alto along the ridge was light work, it was grassy and extremely obvious where I was going. Baldy Alto was arguably more interesting to me than San Luis, the crystal rocks and some crusty towers in the vicinity struck the eye. There were hardly any entries in the summit register though. After a short break I made my way towards the 14er along the ridge. I went down to the saddle and back up the East ridge. After crawling up the mound of scree that is San Luis, I was met with a bit of a summit party, by the time I took off there were 4 others on the summit. We had a blast though, and we all watched a paraglider take off just below. I descended the standard west route to tee back into the Colorado Trail, before hiking another dozen miles or more that afternoon. 

Great views as soon as leaving the trees

Smooth Sailing on this ridge

Standing on Baldy Alto, looking at San Luis

Looking back up at Baldy alto before going 
up San Luis 

Incredible geology on Baldy Alto

Clear skies and great views on San Luis

Route

Close up of the two summits