Mount Sneffels in the San Juan Mountains near Ridgway, Colorado

'Peak' into Colorado. Mount Sneffels in the San Juan Mountains near Ridgway, Colorado

Some mountains make you work for the view. Mount Sneffels makes you work for the last few hundred feet. Rising to 14,150 feet in Colorado's San Juan Mountains, this fourteener is a familiar sight around Ridgway, Ouray, and Telluride. It sits within the 16,587-acre Mount Sneffels Wilderness, a protected area designated in 1980. Hikers can reach the mountain from several approaches, including the Yankee Boy Basin and the Blue Lakes area.

The mountain itself is geologically distinctive: unlike many of its nearby peaks, Mount Sneffels is largely made of an intrusion of igneous rock that pushed into older volcanic deposits. Below its western flank, Blue Lakes fill a deep alpine basin and offer another way to experience the area. The peak also rises above the tree line, where the landscape becomes noticeably more exposed and rocky. Keep an eye on the sky because mountain weather loves a plot twist. Check the forecast and start early, and bring layers, water, and the right gear for the conditions.