I arrived in the late afternoon and found most of the hotels with no vacancy, so I drove up the highway a bit into the mountains and found a nice little place to spend the night. I planned to spend the entire day just looking around, mainly to acclimate to the elevation. Anyway, I retired early to my hotel, for an early start the next morning. I awoke at 4 am to begin my hike, arriving at the Black Cloud trailhead before dawn. There are three well developed trails to the summit of Elbert, the Black Cloud from the south, and one each from the east and north.
Most people take the east trail since it's slightly shorter with less gain.
However, I specifically wanted as few people as possible, hence my choice for the southern route. I began hiking just as the sun started rising, starting up some moderately steep switchbacks in dense forest. It was like this for about an hour, the trees not allowing for any good panoramic views. But soon, after about an hour, the trail grew less steep and the trees a little sparser, and I had my first views of the awesome valley below, and of the equally impressive peaks across the valley, some of whose peaks are only a few feet lower than Elbert's. At this time, I was at around 11,000 feet, and the trail followed a small stream for a ways.