Crystal Saddle

07/15/2018 By icezebra11
Had a fun backpack and climbing trip this weekend with three others from the Colorado Mountain Club. On Saturday we drove to the 2wd trailhead and backpacked in to Lower Crystal Lake. We set up camp on a nice knoll near the trail with great views in all directions.

Our objective was to climb the class 3 east ridge of Father Dyer and then traverse the ridge to Crystal. We headed out a few minutes after 6am and soon gained the ridge. It was a really fun scramble up the ridge to Father Dyer. FD's small summit and shear east face is quite impressive! After some time enjoying the views we headed west down the ridge with Crystal as the next target. The first two-thirds of the traverse is an engaging class 2 exercise with lots of ups, downs, and arounds all on talus. The final pitch up to Crystal is a straightforward hike up the slope.

We enjoyed the summit of Crystal and the great views in all directions! But the weather was starting to look like rain would be coming soon so after a brief stay, we headed down toward the saddle with Peak 10 and on back to camp. Of course along the way I had to stop to locate this cache. There a lot of rocks and hiding places in this location and thankfully the description of it being in a cairn made the find a fairly quick one. I opened the container to find that indeed, the log hadn't been signed in nearly three years!

Thanks MyGeoQuest for placing this cache!!! It's definitely one that should get more visits.
The crew on Father Dyer Peak

Father Dyer summit

08/30/2015 By WolfgangStiller
Dianne and I hiked Crystal Peak and Father Dyer peaks today. Second signature on the new log. I rebuilt things so there is a cairn again. TN LN TFTC!

08/22/2015 By WingsAndTales
The coords took us right to it. We saw a few other people hiking today despite the wind. We had to stay well below the ridge to keep from getting blown off balance. Even then some of the gust still reached us. We had good hike after driving to the radio tower on Peak 10 and included the summit of Crystal Peak too. TFTC

08/22/2015 By kenyansherpa
Came off of Peak 10 with Wings and Tales, then dropped down to the Crystal Mine cache followed by a summit of Crystal Peak before heading back to Peak 10 and grabbed this nice one in the saddle on the way! Thanks to MyGeoQuest for placing this cache! IN - A Team USA pin from the 2015 Pan American Games TFTH!!!
Lots of snow for this late in the year

Still a little bit hazy from the west coast fires

09/17/2013 By COpackrat
I also looked all around GZ for quite a while, and didn't find anything so left a replacement container. Thanks for bringing me up to this fine spot!

06/24/2013 By keithplus2
Long hike.found this in the fall.but it didn't log.tftc

10/11/2012 By keithplus2
No dice bro. Last person tried. We tried. To no avail. Beautiful tho.

08/11/2012 By jsarche
This was a disappointment on an otherwise awesome day hiking with my two boys. We got in a 9-mile hike with about 3,000 feet vertical and had a great time together, but we couldn't find this cache and some ugly-looking clouds started rolling in, along with what felt like 40-mph wind gusts , so we had to abandon our summit attempt, too. There was a cairn right at GZ -- the only cairn around, but there was nothing under or in it. We took it apart and put it back together. Then we broadened our search to about a 50-foot radius, spending 30-45 minutes looking and turning over what had to be every single rock up there. I feel confident in saying this one's gone. Thanks for bringing me to a beautiful spot, though.
screenshot at GZ

09/22/2011 By ernie66
Estes01 and I made the ascent from Crystal Mine, essentially straight up the slope. The view is spectacular from the top, thanks for bringing us up there. We went back down to the car parked at the end of Rd 803 a slightly different and possibly less rocky way. Left a TB that wants to go to far-away places. Fun cache, thanks!

09/22/2011 By estes01
Very enjoyable hike as long as we were out of the wind! No visible trail from the Crystal Mine cache and the obvious route was just “up.” Never saw the cairn, but we were still able to locate the cache quickly. Peak 10 looked so close…it was tempting, and it needs a cache, but the wind changed our minds. Great spot for a cache. Thanks for not making me go to either summit.