Poison Spring Hill

Poison Spring Hill (9,040ft) – highpoint of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park

Looking down into the canyon

Eric and Jake, Nov 10, 2019

We left the trailhead in Great Sand Dunes National Park at sunset Saturday night and drove out the rough sandy road. We had deflated the tires to make it through the sand, and I slowly drove out the highway to the nearest gas station in Alamosa, where we found some compressed air to re-inflate them.

After eating dinner at a Wendy’s we drove through the night to the north rim of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. There was no entrance station and no other cars, so we slept at the trailhead at the end of the road on the edge of the canyon around midnight.

Bushwhacking up

The next morning we got up at sunrise and admired the amazing view into the canyon. It seemed much steeper than the grand canyon, with a big river in the bottom. I bet there are a lot of fun climbing routes on the cliff faces.

From the viewpoint we started up the trail to Dead Horse Lookout. The trail was flat and easy, with only a few patches of icy snow. After a few miles the trail hit a fence line and the left the trail heading north along the fence line. When this fence hit another intersecting fence we crossed through a gate and followed the second fenceline east.

Initially there was a nice animal trail next to the fence, but eventually the route got overgrown with dense bushes. We pushed through, following the fence to the crest of the next ridge. Just on the other side of the fence here we found a cairn and the small register placed by Andy Martin. There averaged only about 1 or 2 sign ins per year, so not surprisingly a not-too-popular summit.

On the highpoint

From my research it appeared like there were several candidates for the highpoint, all points on the ridge of Poison Spring Hill. I think the true highpoint depends on whether you count private land that is technically part of the national park, or only the non-private land in the park. It seemed safest to tag all the points to be certain.

We followed the ridge up 150ft through more open terrain to a local maximum along the ridge, then continued along the ridge to the true summit of Poison Spring Hill. From there we descended back to the trail, then hiked out to the car by noon.

After a quick lunch we were driving out by 1:30pm to our next destination, Longs Peak.