Mount Yale (Southwest Slopes)

Mount Yale is the Collegiate Peak closest to Buena Vista and the one with the paved trailhead: the Denny Creek lot on Cottonwood Pass Road is 12 miles from town on a good road, and the Southwest Slopes route is a steep Class 2 trail to a ridge and a short summit scramble, 9.5 miles round trip with 4,300 feet of gain. The view from the top takes in the whole Arkansas Valley and the rest of the Collegiates.

From the Denny Creek trailhead at about 9,900 feet, the trail climbs through aspen and spruce along Denny Creek, crossing it on a footbridge, for about 1.5 miles to the junction where the Hartenstein Lake trail leaves left. Stay right for Yale. The trail climbs steadily through the last of the trees into a basin, then switchbacks up the southwest slopes on tundra and talus, steep and sustained, to the ridge at about 13,900 feet.

The ridge to the summit is a quarter mile of Class 2 rock with a few short scrambling steps, and the top at 14,199 feet is a small point with Princeton to the south and Harvard to the north. Return the same way; the switchbacks are long on the way down.

From Buena Vista, take Main Street west, which becomes Cottonwood Pass Road (County Road 306), and drive 12 miles to the Denny Creek trailhead on the right; the road is paved. The lot holds about 40 cars and fills by 5 AM on summer weekends, with overflow along the road. No fee or permit. Toilet at the trailhead, and Collegiate Peaks campground is a mile below.

Dogs are allowed on leash in the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness; the summit ridge is rocky for one. Not a kid hike. Carry three liters; Denny Creek is the last water. Poles for the descent and a wind layer for the ridge. Buena Vista is 20 minutes away with every service and the Arkansas River for the day after. The Mount Yale guide covers the route in detail, and the Denny Creek trailhead guide covers Hartenstein Lake and Browns Pass from the same lot.