Colony Baldy is set in the Sangre de Cristo Range which is a subrange of the Rocky Mountains. It is the seventh-highest summit in Custer County,[6] and the 153rd-highest in Colorado.[3] Colony Baldy can be seen from Highway 69 near the community of Westcliffe. The mountain is located in the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness on land managed by San Isabel National Forest.[5] Precipitation runoff from the mountain's slopes drains into tributaries of Grape Creek which in turn is a tributary of the Arkansas River. Topographic relief is significant as the summit rises 2,450 feet (747 m) above North Colony Creek in 0.8 mile (1.3 km) and 2,200 feet (671 m) above Macey Lake in 0.67 mile (1.1 km). An ascent of the peak involves hiking 17 miles (27 km) round-trip with 4,700 feet (1,433 m) of elevation gain.[1] The mountain's toponym was officially adopted in 1970 by the United States Board on Geographic Names.[7]
Climate
According to the Köppen climate classification system, Colony Baldy is located in an alpine subarctic climate zone with cold, snowy winters, and cool to warm summers.[8] Due to its altitude, it receives precipitation all year, as snow in winter, and as thunderstorms in summer, with a dry period in late spring.
^Peel, M. C.; Finlayson, B. L.; McMahon, T. A. (2007). "Updated world map of the Köppen−Geiger climate classification". Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. 11. ISSN1027-5606.
