Kit
Carson
Peak
Routed from OpenStreetMap · elevations USGS 3DEP
The Wheeler Survey mapped the peak in the 1870s as Frustum Peak. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names made Kit Carson Peak — honoring frontiersman Christopher "Kit" Carson — official in 1906 and changed it to Kit Carson Mountain in 1970. Albert Ellingwood and Eleanor Davis, fresh from their climbs of Crestone Peak and Crestone Needle, made the first recorded ascent in 1916, climbing from the southwest and descending the southeast face.
The Kit Carson name has drawn renewed objections tied to Carson's role in the U.S. Army's forced removal of Navajo people in the 1860s. The Town of Crestone petitioned for Mount Crestone in 2010; the national naming board declined in 2011. A 2020 proposal for Frustum Peak, reviving the old Wheeler Survey name, went before Colorado's naming advisory board in 2023 and 2024, which twice declined to act, leaving the mountain's name unresolved.
Rough-dirt 2WD with good clearance just outside the town of Crestone; ruts and steep bits occasionally make 4WD useful, snow tires/AWD in winter.
No fee or permit — Rio Grande National Forest, trailhead at the edge of Crestone. Willow Lake (4.5 mi in) is the standard camp for a two-day climb; the lake basin is heavily used, camp in established sites. Source: 14ers.com Willow Creek trailhead page, checked July 2026.
The official name is Kit Carson Mountain — set by the U.S. Board on Geographic Names as Kit Carson Peak in 1906, changed to Kit Carson Mountain in 1970, and reaffirmed in 2011. The BGN Domestic Names Committee's Quarterly Review List 454 (January 23, 2024) carried two proposals to rename the ridge, both filed as changes from a name considered offensive and submitted as counterproposals to an earlier Frustum Peak proposal: one to Tabeguache Ute Peak (pending) and one to Lawrence Peak (withdrawn). Colorado's Geographic Naming Advisory Board discussed the renaming at its November 2023 meeting; no change has been adopted.
Peak data: Kit Carson Peak — Wikipedia · North America, United States, Colorado, Kit Carson Peak — American Alpine Journal