Point 9577 in Dome Rock State Wildlife Area
24 February
2007
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Trip Report
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24 Feb 2007 - Point 9577 (38.8475N, 105.1886W)
Hikers: Dino Schweitzer, Leemon Baird, Dave Gibson
Trailhead: Woodrock Way Road
Round trip distance: 2.4 miles
Round trip time: 1 hour, 54 minutes
Elevation gain: ~550'
This was a short snowshoe outing from Dino's "cabin" to a prominent 9577' rock outcropping on the northern boundary of the Dome Rock State Wildlife Area 8 miles west of Pikes Peak. After finishing off our coffee and some omelets that I cooked up for breakfast, Dino, Leemon and I started hiking in snowshoes at 10:17 am from Dino's place. Dino's dog Sierra happily joined us. Once down an initial steep hill, we followed a jeep trail through a narrow snow-covered drainage that eventually leads to the Dome Rock trail. In the shady areas the snow was soft and breaking trail warmed me up quickly. We descended about 350' in the first half mile and then turned west to begin the gradual ascent toward our objective. At about 9350' we reached the base of the east side of the impressive 9577' rock outcropping. From there we made an ascending traverse through trees and boulders to the outcropping's north side. On the north side we could see two distinct rocky summits. We took off our snowshoes and scrambled up 20' to an overlook about 50' below the top of the higher southeast summit. From this position the three of us enjoyed beautiful views to the west and north.
While Dino and Leemon headed back down to find Sierra, I continued upward. The snow made the Class 3 scramble up a challenge in one or two spots, but it only took about 5 minutes for me to gain the good-sized summit area. The short climb turned out to be well worth the effort as the summit provided a spectacular 360-degree view for many miles in all directions. The closest higher terrain appeared to be several miles to the north in Mueller State Park. After taking some pictures I scrambled back down and rejoined Dino and Leemon. We retraced our trench in the snow and returned to Dino's by 12:11 pm.