Hayden Pass
I have often thought of the
Sangre de Cristo Range as the perfect
combination of Colorado landforms. It is a
long fault block range, a wall of mountains
with pedestals made up from alluvial fans. All
of this is characteristic of mountain ranges
in the Intermountain west, mostly to the west
of Colorado. But the Sangre de Cristo
mountains also have the sculpted alpine peaks
that are more characteristic of northern
glaciated alpine mountains.
Unfortunately there is no perfect, bike
friendly mountain pass through this range.
Paved
North
La Veta Pass is a kind of race track for
cars (even though combining it with unpaved
Old La Veta Pass
and
Pass Creek
Pass allows getting away from much of
it).
Mosca Pass
is not legally accessible to through going
bicycle traffic.
Medano
Pass is too sandy on the west side, and
the jeep trail to Hermit Pass is such an
ordeal, I have have never been able to get a
bike over it. But I do know of two people who
managed to do so, which included a long walk
down the west side.
This leaves Hayden Pass, and in comparison
with the other options, its steepness may not
seem quite as bad. One advantage - looking and
finding some good views, a close distance from
the road on the east side becomes more likely,
since one is likely to be walking anyway.
Hayden Pass barely reaches timberline, but
hiking north from there immediately climbs
above it.
Hayden Pass is the
northernmost crossing the Sangre de Cristo
Range, about 38 miles south east of
Medano Pass,
which is even slightly than Hayden Pass.
|
1.(mile00,6470ft)
START-END EAST: junction of Hayden Pass
road with US50 near Coaldale
2.(mile05,7300ft) Coaldale campground
3.(mile05,7590ft) Rainbow trail crosses
4.(mile10,10709ft) TOP: Hayden Pass
5.(mile15,7890ft) low point crossing
Rock Creek
6.(mile17,7980ft) START-END WEST: Villa
Grove on US285 |
Approaches
From East. From Coaldale a
paved road starts climbing an alluvial fan with
constant gradient, which is characteristic for
this range. By the time the Coaldale campground
is reached the surface has turned to a good dirt
road. The Rainbow trail crosses the Hayden Pass
road here, offering more MTB possibilities for
the rest of the weekend.
Continuing towards Hayden Pass, the route
changes to a jeep trail immediately after the
campground. The steepest part of the entire
climb is right in the beginning, soon after the
campground. It may not seem that way from
the elevation profile, but past the long initial
steep section, the terrain also contains short,
intermittent relatively shallow parts. Progress
up the slope comes in spurts, especially when
sidetracked to explore for for views on the
lower part of the Arkansas valley, which is what
happened to me. This can be very worthwhile
during late light. To get good views from the
top of the pass requires a hike up towards
Galena Peak to the north.
From West. (also described
upwards) The small settlement of Villa Grove
marks the turnoff from US285 to the Hayden Pass
road. About half of the climb from this side is
up a large alluvial fan in sagebrush country,
that gets progressively steeper. Once you enter
the forest, the top is surprisingly close,
compared to the other side, but still quite a
workout.

the start from Coaldale Campground is very steep
History
Hayden Pass has a long history for
westbound travelers who preferred to "lop off"
the northern part of the Sangre de Cristos
instead of detouring through today's Salida and
the Arkansas Valley. Already the Ute Indians
used the pass.
Hayden Survey (<Wolf
Creek Pass|Mosca
Pass>): In 1873 a subgroup of the
Hayden survey examined the Sangre de Cristo
Range south from Poncha
Pass. The existence of the pass was duly
noted by the group of surveyors. A road over the
pass shortened the pack train distance from
Canyon City up the Arkansas Canyon to Cochetopa Pass
by thirty miles. The pass was already named
after a different Hayden, not the director of
the survey, but a Wet Mountain Valley settler
who had pioneered the route, Lewis Hayden. To
confuse matters further a third Hayden, a state
geologist who surveyed the Sangre de Cristo
Range for governor Gilpin in 1879 is sometimes
also associated with the pass name.
By 1879, a well used wagon road
over the pass provided the option to substitute
Hayden Pass for Poncha
Pass, when traveling between the San Luis
and Arkansas Valleys.


top: Hayden Pass from Rainbow Trail
bottom: rolling down towards Villa Grove
Cycling. An early mountain biking
guide, first published in 1987, mentions
Hayden Pass as being suitable for mountain
biking in its appendix, without describing
it any further (William L. Stoehr's:
Bicycling the Backcountry).
Dayride with this point as highest
summit:
PARTIALLY PAVED / UNPAVED:
Hayden Pass, Poncha Pass:
Hayden Creek area > Hayden Pass >
Villa Grove > US285 north > Poncha
Pass > Poncha Springs > Salida >
US50 south > back to starting point: 63
miles (mech Odo m1:87.6.13).