July 8, 2025

Hiking Kit Carson and Challenger Point

A photo sequence with captions from my recent hike of two Colorado 14ers

Preamble

On July 4th, I went on my first backpacking trip with my cousin Raychel, her girlfriend Lexi, and my Uncle Tim. We hiked about 4 miles from Crestone, Colorado to a campsite near Willow Lake. All this was for our goal of hiking two 14ers the following day, those being Challenger Point and Kit Carson Peak. Below is a chronological series of photos documenting that day, July 5th, when we summitted both mountains.

Morning view — Morning view of Willow Lake

Kit Carson from Challenger — View of Kit Carson (peak on the right) from the ascent of Challenger Point

Terrain — Terrain on Challenger Point ascent

More terrain — More Challenger Terrain

Sand dunes view — View of Great Sand Dunes and Blanca group from the other side of Challenger

Challenger Summit — View towards Challenger Point's summit, on the right. Kit Carson is the semicircular peak on the left.

The edge

Trail view

Descending — Descending towards the Kit Carson avenue

Sign

Hiking up — Hiking up the avenue

First corner — Around the first corner of Kit Carson

Scramble — Scramble to Kit Carson's summit

Kit Carson Summit — Kit Carson summit.

Crestone peak — Crestone Peak from Kit Carson's summit

Another view — Another view from the summit

View of Challenger — View of Challenger Point from Kit Carson

Hikers — Hikers on Challenger Point Summit

Valley view — View towards the valley we ascended from, with Upper Willow Lake at bottom

Curious marmot — Curious marmot at Kit Carson summit

Willow Lake portrait — Willow Lake while descending, portrait

Willow Lake landscape — Willow Lake while descending, landscape

Mountain goats — Mountain goats, from a distance

The end.

Thank you for visiting!