Mt. Princeton is perhaps the most beautiful of the Sawatch mountains. From the aptly named town of Buena Vista, the mountain appears as a high central peak sandwiched by two lesser peaks of almost identical size, shape and distance from main summit. (You can see the main summit and the southern lesser peak in the picture above.) The formidable mountain rises majestically from the upper Arkansas Valley, the first in a row of Collegiate Peaks over 14,000 ft. if you're traveling north on US 285/24.
In addition to its beauty from a distance, Mt. Princeton is impressive from its base, especially to the south where the Chalk Cliffs command the attention of anyone taking the road up to the ghost town of St. Elmo. The cliffs are named for their white color, not the substance from which they are made, as they are really composed of quartz. Along Chalk Creek up the valley on the way to Elmo are three US Park Service campgrounds - ample places to camp before your ascent, but you must either make reservations in the summer or have extremely good luck. After Labor Day, though, you're home free.
Aside from the mountain itself, the best part of hiking Princeton is not the availability of campsites nor the beautiful and historic environs which surround the mountain; it's the Mt. Princeton Hot Springs located on Chalk Creek east of the cliffs. Just the thought of relaxing tired bones and muscles in the hot springs pools after a day of climbing is enough to keep you going.
We successfully climbed Mt. Princeton on August 16, 1997, after having failed on a July 29, 1996 attempt due to bad weather which caught us at about 13,000 feet.
To get to Mt. Princeton, take US 24/285 south out of Buena Vista for eight miles to Nathrop. Turn right (west) on Colorado 162, then right (north) on County Road 321 when you reach the hot springs. This road winds around the mountain east a bit before heading west and into a large parking lot at the trailhead. There is a youth camp there, too, so don't get confused which is which. You want the parking lot with the huge sign overhead which says "Mt. Princeton Trailhead." ;-)
From the parking lot (at about 8,800 feet), hike west up a jeep trail which follows the eastern ridge of the mountain. After about a mile, you'll come to a fork in the road where a sign marked "Colorado Trail" points right (north) and nothing marks the trail to the left. Take the left trail.
About two miles farther you'll come to a telephone relay station at 10,800 feet. Continue left on the jeep trail, which narrows a bit but is still easily passable if you have a four wheel drive vehicle. After about another mile, you'll be able to catch your first glimpse of Princeton's summit during a switchback in the road. It's not that far away horizontally, but it's still a long ways vertically! As long as you're on the road, though, the going is not too steep.
Just as you reach 12,000 feet, barely out of the trees, the road will cross the face of the southern peak. (You can just about see the road crossing in the picture above.) Just when it turns to cross is where you leave the road (there will probably be a few four wheelers parked here) and hike over the ridge. Look for the trail right when the road turns - eventually it ends at the Lucky Mine on the southeast side of the southern peak.
Once you make
it over the ridge, you're ready to cross the mother of all boulderfields, a portion of
which you can see in the picture to the right. Just to give you some sense of how large
this boulderfield is, see if you can find Klaus in the lower left hand corner of the
picture. Because of this boulderfield, do not bring Fido on this hike! It would be
really unfair to the dog to expect him/her to cross this. We have seen dogs during both of
our trips up Princeton, and, believe us, they do not enjoy this!
Fortunately, the "trail" is well marked by cairns as it winds through the boulders. If you're in the clouds, as we were on our first attempt, you may have to pay special attention in a couple of places or lose your way (since you can't see that far ahead to the next cairn), but in clear weather you will have no problem. As with most boulderfields, lots of pikas dot the way, all of them squeeking at you.
The only thing you have to worry about in crossing these boulders is going too far. If you keep on the path, it will eventually lead you to the remains of a mine. Before you get to the mine, you'll have to head uphill to your left in search of the saddle between the two peaks. There seems to be no good place to do this. You'll just have to pick a spot that looks best to you and head up. Just make sure you're far enough along that going up won't place you on the southern peak - shoot for the saddle. Worse, don't go too far toward the mine remains or you'll have a really tough time hiking up Princeton's face instead of its southeastern ridge.
Once you reach the saddle, you'll have a wonderful view of Mount Antero to the south as well as the Arkansas Valley stretching out before you to the northeast. From here, just follow the ridge up.
Just below the summit there is a large
memorial marker in honor of a climber who was stuck and killed by lightning in 1995. It
happened to be the same day we were climbing Mt. Yale, the next
mountain to the north. Please turn back down if the weather turns bad. You do not
want to be above timberline during a lightning storm. You can always climb the mountain on
another day.
Klaus made it to the top at 9:25 am, the second person on the summit that day. This final picture is the view of Mt. Yale from the summit of Princeton. The trip from the parking lot to the summit rises 5,400 feet in about four miles. When we got back down we headed straight for the hot springs. Ahhhhhhh......
This page hosted by 
Get your own Free Home Page