Crestone
Needle
Routed from OpenStreetMap · elevations USGS 3DEP
Crestone Needle takes its name from the Spanish crestón, miners' jargon for an outcropping of ore that also means the crest of a helmet or a rooster's comb — a fitting label for the jagged cluster of summits above the town of Crestone. At 14,196 feet it stands beside Crestone Peak, Kit Carson Peak, Challenger Point and Humboldt Peak in the Sangre de Cristo Range's Crestones group. Colorado Springs climbers Albert Ellingwood and Eleanor Davis made the first recorded ascent on July 24, 1916, reaching the summit by traverse after climbing Crestone Peak the same day.
Ellingwood returned in 1925 with Davis, Stephen Hart and Marion Warner to establish a harder line up the northeast ridge, later named the Ellingwood Arete in his honor. Rated 5.7 and included in the guidebook Fifty Classic Climbs of North America, it remains the peak's signature technical route. Technically demanding, the arête has been the site of multiple climbing fatalities in the decades since.
Easy 2WD dirt to the lower TH at 8,800'; then 2.7 mi of rough, rutted high-clearance 4WD to the upper TH gate at 9,950' (2025–26 reports: bumpy, pick lines carefully). Route stats below start at the upper TH; the lower TH adds ~5.5–6 mi and ~1,150'.
No fee or permit — San Isabel National Forest. The road was permanently gated at the current upper TH in 2009; winter closure is at the bottom near the lower TH (typically Dec–spring). 4WD road conditions are the main variable. Source: 14ers.com South Colony Lakes trailhead page, with 2025–2026 condition reports, checked July 2026.
Peak data: Crestone Needle — Wikipedia