Once you drive into Lake City, Engineer Pass is a well-signed turnoff west onto Second Street (trust me...it's hard to miss). Measuring from that point, you need to drive about 9 miles up Engineer Pass to the Capitol City townsite, which is an old ghost town that still has a few residents. The road is really pretty tame, and any car could make it up to this point. There's a well signed right turn (North Fork Henson Creek) where the road angles sharply left. Take that right turn, and the road becomes pretty bumpy for 2 miles. A high profile 2WD could probably make it this far, where there's some parking and a sign indicating the Wetterhorn trailhead is 0.6 miles further on, and that a 4x4 is recommended beyond this point. That 0.6 miles is most definitely 4x4 only! It's steep and very bumpy, with a number of large rocks in the road. At the end of the road is a forest service closure gate and the trail register

continued from the Wetterhorn trip report...

Rather than hike back down to the Wetterhorn trailhead and drive to the Uncompahgre trailhead, I decided to go ahead and trek across the alpine basin to Uncompahgre...a distance of about 4 miles. Despite the distance, I figured the altitude that I'd be keeping (in the low 12,000s) would be worth it.

After hiking off Wetterhorn's southeast ridge, the first task is to pick up the main trail as it passes east around Matterhorn Peak...the thirteener between the two fourteeners. It took about an hour (until around 11:45am) to get that far from Wetterhorn's ridge. The well defined trail leads from the Wetterhorn trailhead (where I started out early in the morning) around the south and west of Uncompaghre. This part of the trail is mostly flat with just a few rolling spots here and there. I made very good time along this stretch, with Uncompahgre's impressive cliffs always looming to my left.

The trail begins to contour up Uncompahgre's south-east side just past the last of the cliffs and gendarmes. After attaining 2 minor ridges, the trail then contours around the south-east side of the mountain, and finally joins the main trail as you attain the east ridge of the peak. The summit's bulk looms impressively to the west, and you can see the trail as it runs along the east ridge and switches back near the summit. It was about 12:45 when I made it to the trail junction, and I was starting to feel a little beat. Nevertheless, I hiked onwards, and by about 1:45 I had reached the top of the switchbacks on the ridge.

At this point, the trail winds its' way around to the south side of Uncompahgre via a little rock-hopping. As you turn a corner, the trail winds steeply up an obvious gully. There's just a tiny bit of hand-and-foot climbing here, and then you're through it, back on relatively level ground and you hike the last few hundred yards to the summit.

The summit of Uncompahgre is, well, huge. Probably enough room to play a couple football games up there at the same time. For you brave folks, you can peer down the sheer 800 ft. west face. Eeek! For me, I sat and relaxed, signing the trail register and conversing with the half dozen or so other folks up there who were exploring the vast summit. Wetterhorn commanded the view to the west, and several rolling mountain ranges occupied all other directions. Oddly enough, there's a sizable (2' x 2') concrete slab at the summit, the function of which none of us could quite figure out, unless it used to anchor an old weather station.

After about 20 minutes on the summit, it was time to go. I packed up my food and started trudging off this massive mountain. Although it was only from 2:30 to 5:00, it felt like much longer as I hiked east off the summit and then around to the west and the pass by Matterhorn to the Wetterhorn trailhead. In the end, it was an 11 hour day, with 10 hours above treeline. Five peaks in 2½ days. I couldn't have been happier with my trip, and I look forward to returning to this part of the state in the near future. It's definitely one of the most majestic and relaxing places I've ever been.