Fall foliage, clear blue lakes and high peaks... who could come up with a better weekend plan than that?!

I've wanted to climb Bridal Peak in the San Juans and visit Columbine Lake for a while now. The stats using the main trail to Columbine Lake were a bit daunting. Then I stumbled across a trip report where they came in from Porphyry Basin to the north. I researched this route some and sure enough, it was shorter and it even looked like there might be a trail for most of the trip. Sounded like an adventure to me!

We parked in the large lot at the end of the Porphyry Gulch 4x4 road and headed up. You are following an old road that takes you to Bullion King Lake. Just before the lake, look for a trail heading up a gully towards Point 12848 on the topo map.

We followed this trail up to the saddle, then as it descended into a smaller basin. The trail is there for 90% of the way, but even if lost, this is easy terrain. We followed the trail around to a point where we could start heading toward the 13058 foot saddle just south of Bridal Peak. Bridal Peak's south ridge is steep, but easy going and with trail most of the way.

The top of Bridal Peak has an excellent view of Bridal Veil Basin, Blue Lake and the Telluride areas! Plus, the typical San Juan views are there of the peaks surrounding Silverton. What a peak!

We then descended back to the saddle and over to Columbine Lake. What an incredible scene. The lake is so dang blue! After hanging out nearly an hour at the lake, we made our way back to Porphyry Basin. Our cross country hike from Columbine Lake to pick up the trail to Porphyry Basin was pretty easy to navigate and on good terrain.

We drove to the end of Porphyry Gulch 4x4 road. This road isn't horrible per se, but it is quite narrow in spots and meeting oncoming traffic would be tricky. And there is a lot of traffic on this road!

We saw Jeeps, stock pickups, side by sides and even a Subaru at the trailhead.

See the trip report for an explanation. See the GPX track for full details.