Pollock Mountain

I hadn't hiked with Craig for some time, and he texted to say he wanted to climb Pollock Mountain. While this is always a fine idea, there are much more impressive hikes in this target-rich environment that Craig has yet to do. Curious, I asked him how he picked Pollock, and he replied' "It's on my bucket list." Okay, then!

So early morning on what promised to be a stellar day in hunting season, we departed at about 27°F and in the shade. So no pictures until we were well up the mountain, where you can find some rather large trees.

As you climb above the trees, finally, you get some really great views. A little hazy this morning. I was scratching my head about the source of the haze; it seemed pretty thick if it was coming from wood stoves?

Later we could see two (un)controlled burns down by No Business and Tamarack.

When you get to the saddle, a whole new world opens up to the west. That's the southern end of the Seven Devils (Pollock is also considered part of the Seven Devils, but stands somewhat east and apart).

Click on the bigger version of the pic and you can see the lookout.

But there is still some climbing to do. We both noted this cool outcrop on the ridge.

Craig wanted to go to the lookout first. So this is looking west from there. The sharp tooth dead center on the far horizon (steep on the left side, sloped on the right) is Sawtooth Peak.

Sorry, no pictures of the building itself. It was boarded up and with a fairly fresh coat of white paint. Use your imagination. We tried to use it as a windbreak while we had lunch, but not with any real success.

Then it was time to head to the real summit. Folks, the lookout is NOT on the top. This unique and dissapointing feature also applies to Granite Mountain and Sturgill Peak. Folks, read your maps!

So now we're on our way to the summit, with a view back toward Meadows Valley. And the source of our smoke.

There's the real summit over there. When we did this in 2015 it was a pretty easy cruise on snowshoes. Today, it was boulder hopping for pretty much the entire, slow way.

When we could finally quit staring at the next boulder, we got some really impressive views. This view includes Monument Peak, although I'm not quite sure which is the summit over there.

The big notch dead center in this photo separates He Devil and She Devil.

And the grassy ridge here includes the Blue Gulch traverse (aka "Craig's Elk Porn") Dave and I did last spring.

But we thought better of that plan and looped back to our ascent trail. Click the pic to see the crazy rock tread that was built across this boulder hillside.

Note: for a map of this hike, check the previous trip reports, which are linked at the top of this page.

Final note: Craig, I hope you are clicking the links to see other trips...

Home | 2020 | Back to top of page | Questions :: e-mail to splattski