Kennebec Pass, or a short hike at 11,700'

We are always looking for short hikes to enjoy without a lot of elevation gain, aren't we all?  And Jan found in one of her books a short hike to Kennebec Pass, 11,700', accessible after a interesting 4wd climb up a steep section of mountain about 14 miles in from the paved road up the La Plata Canyon through Mayday.  Of course on all of these outings I worry about hanging off cliff faces, well I can report it was a great drive, mostly just rough gravel until the last couple of miles which required 4wd and a bit of clearance.  The very last 3/4 of a mile is very steep and narrow enough for only one vehicle, so you cross your fingers and head up realizing you have the right of way going up.  Luckily we passed no one, and as you make your way around the last tight turn you pop out right into incredible Columbus Basin punctuated with old mining equipment.

Columbus Basin

Old ?

Views were great in all directions

From the basin there is another 1/2 mile of steep climb up to the famous Colorado Trail that stretches almost 500 miles from Denver to Durango.  It must have been the beginning of archery season for deer as we watched two hunters slide down over the hillside appearing ready for several days with all their equipment.  We parked and decided to walk over the actual 11,700' Kennebec Pass on the Colorado Trail, heck, it's only a bit more than 1/2 mile and 400' climb, easy peasy.  Ha!  At that elevation it feels like much, much more.  But man, was it worth it, the views from that high point were phenomenal!

Trail to the pass

What views!

Very nice

Then we turned around and headed back only to find one of the things those hunters were looking for:)

The trail back

Oops, what's that?

We only hiked about 1 1/2 miles but it was awesome, we wanted to hike to Taylor Lake, but it was another 2 miles the other direction, we'll do that next time.

Another view on the way down

Down we go