Originally Posted by
colorado_rob
Just another opinion, but I recommend not diverting to Missouri, Belford and Oxford. Particularly with a small dog, as I seem to remember you have. doing this trio means actually doing Belford twice, as unless you want to buskwhack down Oxford, you pretty much have to come back over Belford a second time. No big deal, but this makes the day that much longer. I've done the MBOB (Missouri, Belford, Oxford, Belford) or the BOBM (reverse) many times, and it's a really nice workout, but really, Belford and Oxford, in particular, are nothing special. You could just do Belford once and skip Oxford, of course.
Missouri is kinda cool, actually. There is a tad of "class 2+" semi-scrambling along Missouri's ridge, but I believe a small dog would have no problem with a boost or two, nothing exposed to a big fall.
I'd definitely climb Huron, easy 14er, but exta special views. Include Mt. Hope, a high-100 when you go over Hope pass, easy side climb. Towards the south end on the east side, there's a nice duo, Shavano and Tabaguache, easy hikes, but you do have to do Shavano twice.
Wait! sorry, I just repeated myself, I've been in the UK for 3 weeks, lagged out. I'll leave the post as is though to emphasize.
Princeton and antero are two of my least favorite 14ers, just slogs up 14000' high bumps. Princeton is slightly better than Antero. Antero is annoying because you'll be dodging jeeps up high.
Elbert would be a nice add on at the end of your trip, but it is a 7-8 hour roundtrip climb/descent, so if you want to catch a 6pm Denver flight, I suggest starting at 4am. Figure 3.5-4 hours to DIA from the trailhead, you probably want to be rolling at noon-12:30. Also, if this will be on a Sunday, forget about it. I70 back into Denver will be packed and it will add a couple hours to your drive. you could drive home via 285, would probably save time over I70 on a sunday, but still longer than I70 on a weekday. BTW: I much prefer the SE ridge route from the Twin Lakes trailhead over the standard north route from Halfmoon. Both are about equal in effort. It should be slightly less crowded in the SE ridge.
All 14ers are extensively documented, by the way, on 14ers.com. I think you have to join to get nitty gritty details, but it is free to do so.