Colorado - High Summits and Stony Pass

[ttora4runner]

Beginning of July I took an extended weekend and headed over towards SW Colorado to hike a couple of the easier 14er summits and to drive Stony Pass. Left work a little early on the 7/8 to drive over to the KOA in Gunnison to spend the night so I wouldn't have such an early morning drive to get to the trailhead at a reasonable time on Friday morning.

7/9/21 - Redcloud and Sunshine Summits, you more or less hike these summits at the same time as part of the standard route. Sunshine is about 1.5 miles from the summit of Redcloud.

Looking back as I started up the trail.






Looking back at the trail.


Summit of Redcloud




View from Redcloud looking towards the summit of Sunshine




Starting to head towards the summit of Sunshine.


Trail from the summit of Redcloud on the left.


Summit of Sunshine somewhere up there.


Looking back at Redcloud.


View from the summit of Sunshine.




Another route comes up though here but it is not recommend.


View from Redcloud as I started back to the trailhead.


Heading back.


Ended up getting lucky enough to get a campsite near the trailhead so I could hike Handies summit the following morning.

 

[ttora4runner]

7/10/21 - Handies summit and Stony Pass

Early morning wake-up call at 400 am so I could break down camp and head to the upper parking lot of Handies summit trailhead.

View as I started on the trail. One of the reason for starting early was so I could hike in the shade and avoid hiking in the basin as the sun was rising overhead.








Looking at Sloan Lake.


Trail


Summit of Handies in the background


View from the summit around 700 am.




After hiking Handies I drove back over Cinnamon Pass and down towards Silverton so I could start the drive over Stony Pass towards Creede, Colorado.






Old tram-house along the ridgeline about the middle of the photo.


Looking towards the pass.

 

[ttora4runner]

At the pass.












More trails to explore.


Looking back towards the pass.


Onward.




Water crossing and the headwaters of the Rio Grande.

 

[ttora4runner]

Seemed like a nice spot to stop for a lunch break. The tail gate made for a good spot to lay down for a minute though not very comfortable.


Decisions, decisions...decided to go left.


The route I didn't take and a family camping down at the bottom left of the photo.


The trail heading down the Timber Hill area - this was the most sketchiest part of the trail due to being very narrow, not alot of spots to pull over for uphill traffic, down trees along and the side and rocky.






Water-crossing at the start/end of Timber Hill.




Moose


Heading back towards Creede, Colorado






I had planned to spend another night to along the trail to explore the Creede area some but I was perfectly happy to skip out and just come back another time since I completed what I originally intended to do. That and there is another 14er in the area that I want to hike so I'll rope the Creede area into that trip.

 

[FAW3]

Thanks for the report. Great photos.

 

[68camaro]

Great photos's....looks like cutthroat country to me