The Best Rock Climbing Routes in Salida

High in the Sangre de Cristos, the remote Sand Creek Valley is surrounded by several imposing peaks, all more than 13,000 feet in elevation. Of these, Marble Mountain (13,266 ft) has the most attainable summit....

Mount Herard (13,297 feet) is the summit that stands sentinel over the Great Sand Dunes. Thousands of visitors admire its snowy slopes from far below, but few ever think to venture there....

This is a great overnight backpacking trip into the high alpine of the Sangre De Cristo Mountains! Willow Lake, the halfway point of the climb, is surrounded by 200-foot cliffs with waterfalls and is the ideal spot to set up camp....

While Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle are renowned as two of the most beautiful, most formidable, and most technical 14ers in Colorado, if you stick to the standard routes, you can tackle each peak individually with a Class 3 climb....

While Crestone Needle and Crestone Peak are renowned as two of the most beautiful, most formidable, and most technical 14ers in Colorado, if you stick to the standard routes, you can tackle each peak individually with a Class 3 climb....

The highly technical traverse from Crestone Peak to Crestone Needle opens up the opportunity to bag both of these iconic peaks in one climb, but this traverse is renowned as one of the most difficult mountaineering challenges on Colorado's 14ers....