Button Rock west knob, Button Rock Mountain (8450 ft, 2576 meters), and south knob of Button Rock Mountain (8417 ft, 2566 meters), 04/23/2005
From Lyons, we headed to Pinewood Springs on US 36, and took the first left at Pinewood Springs where the signs say "Gate 1" and "Deer Lane". Took a right on Meadow Road, then a left on Pinewood Drive. At the intersection of Pinewood Court, Pinewood Drive, and Chipmunk Drive, there is a trail heading into the forest. Thanks to the rock climbers website http://www.climbingboulder.com/rock/db/pinewood_rock/ for directions there. We parked near this intersection, off the road, and started hiking up the trail at 10:20. GPS info at trailhead: 40.26945 105.36349, 6865 ft, accuracy 27 ft. We reached the saddle point between Button Rock and the west knob of Button Rock at 10:59. We hiked around the granite mass that is Button Rock, looking for the easiest unaided route up with hiking boots. We eventually decided not to ascend it, and then headed up the west knob of Button Rock, reaching its top at 12:08. GPS info on top of Button Rock west knob: 40.26176 105.37283, 8065 feet, accuracy 14 feet. This is a huge piece of solid granite with great views and a perfect place for lunch. But we didn't have lunch there, but instead descended back down toward the saddle point at about 12:30, then went around the north side of the west knob, and left the Button Rock area, heading west, then southwest toward Button Rock Mountain. We reached the summit of Button Rock Mountain at about 13:18. It is not easy to find this summit because Button Rock Mountain has a large flattish top with a number of rock knobs that have a similar height. Thanks to our GPS, we knew where the summit was without having been there before. Not surprisingly, we found a summit register placed there by Mike Garratt from Dolores, Colorado in December of 2003. We signed the register. There was only one other entry in the register, dated two weeks after Mike placed it there. No one had signed from Dec 2003 until our entry of Apr 2005. We sat on the summit for a few minutes, then headed south to the south knob of Button Rock Mountain. We reached the top of the south knob of Button Rock Mtn at 14:17. There is a benchmark on this knob, and the topo map shows the elevation here to be 8417 feet, only 33 feet lower than the Button Rock Mtn summit. This is a nice knob with views much better than the Button Rock Mtn summit. There was no summit register here, so we left one. GPS info for south knob of Button Rock Mountain: 40.24640 105.39024, elevation 8429 feet, accuracy 20 feet. The trip odometer showed 4.64 miles since we started from our parking place. We left the south knob of Button Rock Mtn at 14:45. We returned to the saddle point between Button Rock and the west knob of Button Rock at 16:07. We ate a very late lunch here on the west knob, before beginning our return at 16:27. We returned to the truck at 16:53. The trip odometer on our return showed 8.67 miles.
Elevation difference from parking place to summit of Button Rock Mountain: 8450 - 6865 = 1585 ft
Total trip time: 6 hours, 33 minutes.