Syncline Mountain

Route Description for Syncline Mountain

The drive to the Castle Wilderness area along Highway 774 is dominated by the large mountain that looms up from the rolling foothills - Syncline Mountain. While the mountain has three separate summits, the official one (oddly, the lowest of the three) is the most impressive one as viewed from Highway 774 and is also an easy scramble (tagging the other two summits requires some serious scrambling). It is a great day out in the Rockies.

While the ascent is exceptionally steep at just under 1,000 m in just over 3.0 km - the real crux of the journey is the bushwhacking and the heat. Bring a map and/or GPS and be sure to start early in the day.

As you begin, you will immediately notice that there is a lot of brush, which can make for very slow going. You are bushwhacking here for about 200 m.

As you come upon a drainage, continue ahead until you are out of the trees and then go right to gain the ridge. As you ascend, the foliage thins, however, bushes and deadfall plague the first half of the ascent.

Past the brush and deadfall, you enter a larch forest, while a bit cluttered with bushes in spots, makes for easy travel. Near the top things get quite steep, but remain nothing more than a hike all the way through a wide gap in the cliff band guarding the summit plateau.

An easy stroll then leads you to the summit of Syncline Mountain, marked with a cairn holding a geocache/register. It is possible to traverse to the other two summits, but there is significant scrambling required. Otherwise, rest and enjoy the views then return the way you came.