Argentine Peak

August 10, 2024

Argentine Peak + Mount Wilcox | 13,743 feet + 13,414 feet

7.60 miles; 3667 feet elevation gain

Total time: 5 hours 40 minutes

I love this area for the solitude it offers despite being so close to Denver. While the road sees a lot of off-roading traffic, the peaks are very quiet compared to all the popular surrounding 14ers. The road to Waldorf Mine does require 4WD and high clearance. Most of road isn't very technical but there are a few sections with large rocks and tight swtich backs that require some careful line picking and clearance. My stock 4Runner TRD Off Road had no issues.

I have climbed both of these peaks before, Argentine Peak from this route but Wilcox from a different route, here is my post on the alternate route. If you have a capable vehicle I think this route is a much more enjoyable way to climb Wilcox. The CalTopo route linked above was our plan for the day, combining four 13ers in this basin but sadly the weather didn't cooperate for all four. We did Argentine and Wilcox, which was still a beautiful day.

We parked just past Waldorf Mine and started by hiking up the road to the top of the pass. If you are only doing these two you could cut off some mileage by driving further up the road, but since we planned to finish on McClellan it made sense to park here. When you reach the top of the pass, the route up Argentine Peak is obvious although there is only a sporadic trail. It is a mix of grassy tundra and talus. We reached the summit of Argentine Peak, around 2.5 miles and 2100 feet of elevation gain, in 1.5 hours. From Argentine you will cut down to the ridge that very clearly leads you to Wilcox. This ridge is so beautiful with views down to Silver Dollar and Murray Lake. Most of it is grassy tundra until the final push to the summit with it talus climbing with an on and off trail. From the summit of Argentine you will descend about 900 feet before regaining about 650 feet to the Wilcox summit; this took us 1 hour. After a quick summit break we headed back to Argentine Peak. This 900 feet of re-gain was exhausting and took us a little over 1 hour. From here we headed back down to the saddle where we intended to follow the CDT towards Edwards and then onto McClellan. This route is very straightforward and easy to follow. Unfortunately the weather didn't cooperate today but given the forecast we were happy with what we got in before the storms!