Forget 14ers. Here’s Why 13ers in Colorado Are Even Better.

Colorado’s 14ers—mountains that reach 14,000 feet of elevation—carry significant gravitas in the adventure travel world. Rightfully so: They are physically and mentally challenging, astoundingly beautiful, and, with 58 to choose from, offer a tantalizing variety of Rocky Mountain geology and ecology to explore. What they don’t offer is solitude.

Fourteeners are heavily trafficked, by both locals and tourists. According to a latest annual report from the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative (CFI), the trail counter at 14,272-foot Quandary Peak, a popular 14er near Breckenridge, recorded more than 26,500 hiker days during the 2024 season. The season runs roughly June through September. “Hiker days” corresponds to one person, hiking one peak in a single day. That means there are hundreds, if not thousands, of hikers conga-lining their way up Quandary on good weather days in the summer.

Hoping for a more authentic nature experience, I opted for a different summit hike during my recent trip to Breckenridge: 13,860-foot Crystal Peak, a lowly 13er. It was the right decision. During the seven-hour round-trip, I saw just two other people outside of my party. And we had the summit all to ourselves. Meanwhile, over on Quandary, we could see swarms of people, like ants, from our vantage atop Crystal.

I checked in with veteran guide Ted Mahon on this phenomenon. Mahon has hiked and skied Colorado’s 100 tallest mountains—58 14ers plus 32 13ers —known as the Centennials. I asked him the difference between a 14er and a high 13er like Crystal Peak. “In terms of scenery, physical effort, and challenge, they are quite the same,” Mahon said. “The difference is the 13ers will be considerably less trafficked, by a huge margin.”

There are more than 600 mountains in Colorado that rise to between 13,000 and 13,999 feet of elevation. Twenty of them are within 100 feet shy of 14,000 feet. Consider me converted. I see no reason to battle crowds to get my Rocky Mountain high. These five 13ers are even better than 14ers.

Crystal Peak

Elevation: 13,860 feet
Distance (out and back): 9.5 miles
Rocky Mountain Subrange: Tenmile Range
Basecamp: Breckenridge

Hiring a local guide is always a smart move. For Crystal Peak, I worked with Breckenridge-based Colorado Adventure Guides. Our guide was Brittany Konsella, who is one of only two women ever to have summited and skied all 58 of Colorado’s 14ers (the other is Mahon’s wife Christy).

Mahon told me that you don’t want to underestimate 13ers. They may be lower in elevation than 14ers, but that doesn’t mean they’re easier. “The lack of traffic means there’s also a lack of established routes,” Mahon said. “And so sometimes the path to the top of a 13er can involve more route finding and more actual self-reliance than going on a more popular14er.”

Sure enough, on Crystal, not long after we’d reached the scree slopes of the alpine, where the trail disappears, I was drawn toward a cobalt blue lake carved out of slate-grey stone. It turned out to be the wrong move. Had we kept going that way, we would have had a much steeper climb to the summit. Fortunately, Konsella was there to steer us back in the right direction.

She also informed us that actual crystals can be found on Crystal Peak. My friend Brigid is a rockhound, and she was keen to spot some on the descent (the air was too thin, the physical effort too high, to be on the hunt during the ascent). The crystals were surprisingly easy to find in the talus if, like Brigid, you know how to look. She’d wander off the main route and start turning small boulders over with her foot. She’d bend down and voila, toothy quartz crystals growing in the rock would reveal themselves.

While you can do Crystal Peak as a day-hike, we opted to spend the night before at Francie’s Cabin, part of the Summit Huts system. The idyllic cabin is located at 11,264 feet of elevation, just off the Crystal Peak trail. Not only is staying at Francie’s even better than glamping, but starting from there in the morning shaved two miles off our summit hike distance.

Pacific Peak

Elevation: 13,965 feet
Distance (out and back): 7.75 miles
Rocky Mountain Subrange: Tenmile Range
Basecamp: Breckenridge

Konsella’s favorite 13er is Pacific Peak, located in the Tenmile Range alongside Crystal Peak, Quandary Peak, and the peaks of Breckenridge Ski Resort. One of the highest 13ers (35 feet shy of 14,000), Pacific Peak offers see-forever views looking into the Gore, Sawatch, and Elk ranges. Konsella, who is also a ski-tour guide, describes the trail as easy—relatively speaking—starting in an evergreen forest that gives way to meadows and lakes before ascending into the alpine. She follows it to the top, then descends on skis via the North Couloir—well-known among experts for being one of the steepest, most aesthetically pleasing ski lines in Colorado. The rest of us just turn around and hike back down the way we came.

Experienced high-elevation hikers (and skiers) can get two summits for the price of one by adding on 13,856-foot Atlantic Peak, located less than half a mile across the saddle from Pacific. The two 13ers share a trailhead, which is located about ten miles from the popular mountain town of Breckenridge.

New for Breck, Hotel Alpenrock began welcoming guests in 2025. The contemporary 205-room hotel features a high-end restaurant, The Edwin, serving up global mountain cuisine like Elk Bolognese. Don’t miss the Breckenridge Distillery—the world’s highest—which recently unveiled Casa Breck Tequila, in addition to its award-winning whiskeys, gins, and vodkas. In 2024, Rootstalk restaurant earned a James Beard Foundation award—a first for Breckenridge.

Twining Peak

Elevation: 13,721 feet
Distance (out and back): 4.4 miles
Rocky Mountain Subrange: Sawatch Range
Basecamp: Aspen

If you’re new to high-elevation hiking, Twining Peak is the 13er for you. The trailhead starts at 12,000 feet atop Independence Pass, a scenic drive from Aspen to the Continental Divide that’s a bucket-list activity in its own right. The hike to the top of Twining is just over 2 miles long and doesn’t involve any scrambling. Mahon does it in an hour. “If you’re coming from sea level, plan for maybe twice that,” he said. Like most hiking routes above treeline, the trail may be challenging to find in places, and traverse rubble and loose rock.

The view from the summit is one of the best in the state—a full, 360-degree panorama. “Twining is pretty central in a big sea of peaks,” Mahon said. Look east for a rare bird’s eye view of Mount Elbert and Mount Mt. Massive, the two tallest peaks in Colorado at 14,438 feet and 14,427 feet respectively.

Base out of Aspen, Colorado’s bougiest mountain town, for exceptional accommodations, dining, and entertainment. Petite Trois, the acclaimed French bistro from Chef Ludo Lefebvre, is opening its third location there in winter 2025 (inside the Mollie Aspen hotel) and the luxury boutique hotel White Elephant Aspen opened its doors in fall 2025.

Mount Adams

Elevation: 13,937 feet
Distance (out-and-back): 11.6 miles
Rocky Mountain Subrange: Sangre de Cristo Range
Basecamp: Crestone

One of the more remote and dramatic subranges of the Rockies, the Sangre de Cristos stretch from southern Colorado to northern New Mexico. Sangre de Cristo means “Blood of Christ” in Spanish and refers to the red hue the peaks take on at sunrise and sunset. The range contains the Great Sand Dunes, the tallest in North America, and Crestone, a very small town with a very strong spiritual vibe (also known as a vortex).

Peak-baggers are drawn to the area by the Kit Carson massif, a 14,000-foot behemoth encompassing Kit Carson Peak, Challenger Point, and Columbia Point, and by the nearby Crestones, a cluster of four 14ers. But Mahon prefers the under-the-radar 13ers, Mount Adams. “It’s the same incredible Sangre de Cristos rock, which is mostly conglomerate and a lot more solid compared to the crumbly rock in other ranges,” he said. “And the view of all those other peaks from the summit of Adams is pretty amazing.”

Take the Willow Lake trail, and plan to camp the night before in one of the dispersed sites about 4 miles in, just before the gorgeous alpine lake and cascading waterfall. It’s one of Mahon’s favorite places to camp in Colorado, located in a high-elevation plateau encircled by massive peaks. Bring your fishing gear and license.

Vermillion Peak

Elevation: 13,909 feet
Distance (out and back): 10.2 miles
Rocky Mountain Subrange: San Juan Range
Basecamp: Silverton

Vermillion Peak is the tallest of a series of high 13ers surrounding the iconic Ice Lake Basin in southwestern Colorado. The picture-perfect turquoise lake has become an incredibly popular hiking destination, but Mahon said you see very few people once you start ascending the peak.

Vermillion and its neighboring mountains are all part of the San Juans, a distinctive subrange that’s best known for its mining history. “The San Juans are really beautiful geologically,” Mahon said. “You have all these different shades of color where natural veins of ore were seeping out the side of the mountain.”

While it’s tempting to plan this hike during summer wildflower season—the apex of beauty along the Ice Lake trail—September is better because most of the snow will be melted out from the summit of Vermillion.

Plan to stop in Silverton, a former gold and silver mining town turned mountain sports mecca. Besides world-class skiing, hiking, and rafting, Silverton is also the gateway to Ouray—via 11,018-foot Red Mountain Pass—America’s ice-climbing capital. Mahon’s go-to for breakfast burritos and gourmet coffee is Coffee Bear Silverton. For après-hike burgers he hits Handlebars Food & Saloon, serving veggie, “shroom,” beef, and elk patties.