Mount Sneffels in the San Juan Mountains near Ridgway, Colorado, United States
© lightphoto/Getty Image
Mount Sneffels in the San Juan Mountains near Ridgway, Colorado
Some mountains make you work for the view. Mount Sneffels makes you work for the last few hundred metres. Rising to 4,310 metres in Colorado's San Juan Mountains, this fourteener is a familiar sight around Ridgway, Ouray and Telluride. It sits within the 67-square-kilometre Mount Sneffels Wilderness, a protected area designated in 1980. Hikers can reach the mountain from several approaches, including the Yankee Boy Basin and the Blue Lakes area.
The mountain itself is geologically distinctive: unlike many of its nearby peaks, Mount Sneffels is largely made of an intrusion of igneous rock that pushed into older volcanic deposits. Below its western flank, Blue Lakes fill a deep alpine basin and offer another way to experience the area. The peak also rises above the tree line, where the landscape becomes noticeably more exposed and rocky. Keep an eye on the sky because mountain weather loves a plot twist. Check the forecast and start early, and bring layers, water and the right gear for the conditions.
Related Images
An old farm in the Shetland Islands, Scotland
Glastonbury Tor and St Michael's Tower in England for the start of the Glastonbury Festival
Yukon River viewed from the Midnight Dome, Dawson City, Yukon, Canada
Vinicunca Mountain in the Cusco Region of Peru
Prairie and pinnacles near Castle Trail in Badlands National Park, South Dakota
Hope Valley, Peak District, England
Rio Grande and Sierra del Carmen Mountains in Big Bend National Park, Texas
Reflections on Crummock Water in the Lake District, Cumbria, England
Bing Today Images
