Mt. Cosgriff

Route: Black Cloud Trail (See AllTrails)
Posted On: 6/1/2025, By: bryanpeck3
Info: A couple hundred feet of snow to walk over/post hole through and a few wet spots in the woods, but it is great summer conditions otherwise. 

Route: From Black Cloud TH
Posted On: 9/19/2024, By: SnowAlien
Info: The colors on Independence pass are popping off and the weather looked perfect, so I wanted to do a scenic hike nearby. I pulled into the Black Cloud TH around 10am to find it nearly full. I was surprised to see some out of state license plates - wow, these unranked 13ers are getting popular! The trail was surprisingly nice too, with great log bridges over creek crossings and the deadfall was taken care off as well. Then I started to see the hikers- 1-2-3-4..., so I asked what they hiked. Elbert - was the response. Everything started to make sense then, as I had totally forgot about this approach to Elbert. Anyways, the leaves are beautiful and it was a gorgeous weather day. No register. 

Route: via Black Cloud TH
Posted On: 7/15/2024, By: durkan
Info: Dry and steep; gorgeous approach for South Elbert as well. 14ers Initiative putting in work with a new trail above treeline. Missed it on the ascent, but followed it on the descent. Seemed slightly incomplete still so that makes sense how it was missed but it is looking great! Just follow some flagging. Make those donations, y'all. 

Route: From Black Cloud
Posted On: 7/12/2023, By: Jay521
Info: Summer conditons the entire route. Route is in the best shape I've seen it in with the exception of nearing the ridge - and CFI teams were out doing a re-route of that. 

Route: Black Cloud Trailhead
Posted On: 6/12/2022, By: oldgrayhair
Info: Summer conditions; very nice people on the route. 

Route: Black Cloud Trail
Posted On: 10/11/2020, By: pmodell
Info: Trail dry to South Elbert summit. I took an extra pen for the summit register cache on Mount Cosgriff. The container is a plastic peanut butter jar. It is probably not moisture proof. It contains no writing instrument. And almost any ball point pen is too long to fit inside. The pencil or pen must be less than about five inches long. The next person up should take an extra pencil. 

Route: From Mount Elbert, Down Black Cloud
Posted On: 10/6/2020, By: supranihilest
Info: From Mount Elbert or "South Elbert" head southeast down the ridge until you're on the "South Elbert"/Cosgriff saddle. Cosgriff has a huge cairn on top but otherwise is totally undistinguishable considering it's just a big lump with very minor prominence. From Cosgriff's summit return to the "South Elbert"/Cosgriff saddle, where the Black Cloud trail becomes obvious. The initial part into the drainage is rather steep and loose but doesn't require anything more than diligence not to slip. The entire trail is easy to follow back to the trailhead. 

Route: Cosgriff/South Elbert/Elbert/Bull Hill Loop from B
Posted On: 6/24/2020, By: JasonKline
Info: Summer conditions. With only a little effort between South Elbert and Bull Hill, the little remaining snow is easily avoidable. The same could not be said for the crowd of about twenty people who insisted on standing tightly-packed while blocking distanced access to the Elbert summit block and flying a drone. 

Route: Southwest Ridge from Black Cloud
Posted On: 6/10/2020, By: two lunches
Info: summer conditions. all water crossings in good shape. lots of avalanche debris, but rarely impacts trail- which is well-defined (and dry) 

Route: Black Cloud
Posted On: 11/7/2019, By: Tony1
Info: Trail is a little hard to follow between 11,000 and 12,000 feet due to snow, but footsteps are in place, just keep going uphill. A map showing the trail and my location helped me a little. Hardly any snow below 10.5k, a couple inches between 10.5-11k, a few inches between 11-12k, then above 12k it's on-and-off dry and some snow on the trail. I brought spikes and gaiters but didn't use either. Gaiters would be more helpful if you so choose.