Hiking Copper Mountain to Frisco

Jun 25, 2010 | No Responses

Now that was a hike!  The Summit Hiker says it is 11 miles, but from the bus stop at Copper Mountain to the County Commons complex in Frisco we registered 13.5 miles on our GPS.  We actually shortened the hike, taking the Miner’s Creek 4 WD road rather than going past Rainbow Lakes as suggested in the Summit Hiker, before ending up on the bikepath.  It took us 8 hours, with a fairly long stop up top to eat lunch and rest. 

The hike starts near the Copper Mountain Starbucks on the east side of Highway 93.  Follow a gas line road for a while and once you see the trail sign, head uphill going south on a diagonal across the Ten Mile Range.   We were gaining about 500′ in elevation every half mile once we got started.  Just about at timberline, the trail turns north as it connects with the Miner’s Creek trail, and you zig back the way you came, only much higher up.  This time, hiking above timberline, you keep gaining elevation until you are in the saddle between Peaks 6 and 7, about 6 miles from where you started.    Here you are very near the upper lift at Breckenridge, and you realize just how close Copper and Breckenridge are to each other, as the crow flies.  The climb up is about 3,000′ of elevation gain, so we had a short lunch stop on the lee side of the peak, out of the wind.   The trail continues up almost to the top of Peak 6, then angles across the face of it on the Frisco/Breckenridge side and continues across the front of Peak 5.  The views are awesome, and you can see everything from Breckenridge and Baldy Mountain to Lake Dillon.

Once across Peak 5, the trail comes to a flat area where we chose to stop and enjoy the scenery.  It has a great view of Peaks 4, 3, Ten Mile Peak (peak 2) and Peak One.  From there, we dropped into a grassy valley below Peak 4, and followed a stream down (I am assuming it is Miner’s Creek as that is the name of the trail we were on at that point.)  I have done this part of the hike before, and remember that earlier in the summer, the wildflowers were beautiful.  In September, they are pretty much done except for a few gentian here and there. 

After some time hiking through the trees, you connect with the Peaks trail, which goes from Breckenridge to Frisco.  Here the hike gets a bit long as it is not as interesting and after 9 or 10 miles you are wishing the end would be a little closer.  We hung in there (no choice but to) and eventually came to the 4 WD road where we were to connect to the trail to Rainbow Lake.  We have hiked this area numerous times before and really had no wish to do it again at this point, so took the shortest way out and called for a ride from the County Commons. 

I consider this hike one of the best I have done, along with the trail up Buffalo Mountain (which is much shorter, but also difficult.)  

The Summit County lifestyle is truly a reason to live here.