La Plata's standard route, a direct and well-marked Class 2 climb from a highway-adjacent trailhead.
The South Fork Lake Creek Trailhead sits just off paved Colorado Highway 82, about 9 miles east of Twin Lakes between Leadville and Independence Pass — one of the more accessible trailheads among Colorado's higher peaks. From the trailhead, the trail crosses South Fork Lake Creek and climbs through forest into La Plata Gulch, gaining steadily via a series of stone-and-log steps in the lower section. Above treeline the trail follows the broad northwest ridge to the summit; the route is well-marked but sustained, becoming rockier with some easy scrambling in the final stretch.
Reverse the ridge and gulch trail back to the highway trailhead.