LoJ: #577 (Pre-LiDAR #590) / 13,087' Mount Garfield

The following summary will apply to all the peaks accessible from Vestal Creek. These include: Peaks Two and Three, The Trinities, Vestal, Arrow, Electric, Graystone, Point Pun (unranked) and Garfield. In describing the routes for all these peaks, we have used the beaver ponds on the Elk Creek trail as the "base camp" starting point. Mileages and elevation gain are measured from there for each. However, for those with the strength and fortitude, you can continue the backpack portion of the trip by heading up the unmaintained and sometimes confusing Vestal Creek Trail. That hike will be included with each summit in this area as part of the "approach." Not only is the Vestal trail confusing at times with multiple tracks to follow, it is very steep and also harbors a large number of fallen logs to cross. The campsites in upper Vestal Creek are also known for their aggressive and camp-destroying marmots. Protect your food supply accordingly and even your gear as well. In 1992, we had marmots chew their way into our tent, then they both slept and defecated on our sleeping bags. In addition, they completely destroyed a pair of shorts we had left outside to air out, chewed on our packs and socks left out and they chewed through one of the tubes for our water filter. In short, they were attracted to anything that had salt on it.

From where the Vestal Creek trail comes close to Vestal Creek at about 11,100 ft., and you can see the drainage between Electric and Arrow, cross the creek which will likely be easiest at the closest location of the trail to the creek. There's an old, rotting log right by the trail here, nice for taking a break on. Proceed toward the talus cone at the base of the Arrow-Electric valley, wading through hip-tall vegetation and hidden rocks. One approach is to aim for the center of the drainage which will involve hiking up the boulder-covered talus slope. There may be snow in the narrow drainage center up higher to deal with. Another way into this upper valley is to walk left of the talus slope and head up an open slope just out of trees that has many wildflowers. Continue up this slope to the base of a cliff band and turn left even more so and follow a green ramp up until you can breach the cliff band with a short, 3rd class move. Once through it, you'll be above the center drainage and on the east side.

However you gain the drainage, continue walking SSW amid tedious rocks, talus and boulders and perhaps some snow. Earlier season snow coverage can make this go much more quickly. An ice axe can be handy if there's much snow, especially if you come up the center gully from Vestal Creek. Continue to the head of the valley, eventually veering to the west side of the drainage and follow some open slopes with fewer rocks, smaller scree and a little tundra to the saddle between Electric and Graystone.

From the Electric/Graystone saddle, head west, the goal being to basically “contour” over to Garfield Lake. This will involve an additional mile of hiking across varied terrain. It starts out with a descent of about 150 - 200 feet in more rubble and then heading out west crossing even more rubble until you get across the NW ridge that comes down off Graystone. Once around that ridge, continue hiking, crossing great slabs of sloping rock that always slope to the north. These slabs can be tricky if wet from melting snow or rain. In early season, they could have snow coverage. The lake you see below to the north is not Garfield. Do not be drawn down toward it. Follow a ramp with a small amount of vegetation that cuts across the slabs for a while, but eventually playing out. If you foresee some obstacles ahead, clamber up some slabs to gain a little more altitude and avoid a drop section. Then contour more until rounding another minor ridge and looking down upon Garfield Lake. To make the drop down to the lake (we were probably 200 feet in elevation above it), cross numerous rock outcrops of the same slabby rock with tundra/grass growing in the flatter areas in between each outcrop. This was overall, easier terrain to walk through at least. Nothing should be any more difficult than Class 2+.
Take a short break at the lake and study how you can gain the SSE ridge of Garfield. There is a prominent saddle on that south ridge directly west of the lake. To get there, cross the lake outlet (north end, easy to do) and then walk across a slope of large talus/boulders aiming for a large, flat-sided boulder at the upper edge of the talus and just below some cliffs. From the boulder, follow a green ramp that leads upward toward the saddle. The going here is easy. Followed it SW until you come to a gully on your right that appears to shortcut the saddle and lead directly to the ridge above. It does lead to the ridge and as you gaze north, you'll see a somewhat daunting task ahead. For the remaining distance to the summit, there is a lot of rock, embedded rock, boulders and outcrops to avoid. For much of the distance, it is 3rd class scrambling. There is one false summit to go around as well. At one point, perhaps before that false summit, we departed the ridge line and contoured on the east side below the ridge until we came to a steep, narrow, somewhat sandy gully with numerous clumps of columbine in bloom and a couple of very small trees. We headed back up that gully and regained the ridge. From there, it is more careful walking along all the rocks until you arrive at the small, rocky and not too comfortable summit. If your timing is good, you may get to look down upon the narrow gauge railroad some 4,000 feet below as it passes by and hear its distant whistle.

For the return hike, we suggest going back as you came, but some may desire to continue from the Garfield-Point Pun saddle and continue over to Point Pun. You may want to do some internet research for information about that traverse. Gary Neben has a report about his attempt at this traverse on Mountain Handbook.

For an alternative route to Garfield alone, without the lengthy backpack to the beaver ponds along Elk Creek, there is a "rumored" route that heads along a secondary drainage from the Elk Park area to the unnamed lake at 11,510 ft. below Garfield Lake. We heard about this route from Gerry & Jennifer Roach.