La Plata with Beautiful Fall Colors - Colorado 14er Dayhike

La Plata Peak is over fourteen thousand feet in elevation and the fifth highest mountain in the U.S. state of Colorado with an elevation of 14,368 feet. It is located in the Sawatch Range in northwestern Chaffee County, approximately 20 miles southwest of Leadville, Colorado, just south of Twin Lakes and State Highway 82 on the east side of Independence Pass. La Plata peak is located within the San Isabel National Forest and is part of the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness.
The peak's name means 'silver' in Spanish. This comes from the many silver deposits in the area. The nearby ghost towns of Winfield and Hamilton were prominent silver mining towns in the early part of the 20th Century. A Hayden Survey team first climbed the peak on July 26, 1873.