Redcloud Peak - 14037' - Class 1
Sunshine Peak - 14006 - Class 1
June 2011

Redcloud and Sunshine

Mandy on the trail to Redcloud Peak

After doing Uncompahgre and Matterhorn Mandy and I next drove as far as we could up the Cinnamon Pass Road from Lake City but we couldn't get much more than a mile in my jalopy so we pulled off and just slept by the car next to the road. Sunrise the next morning was sweet as the glow on the peaks near Half Peak across the valley was beautiful. We walked the three miles to the Grizzly Gulch Trailhead and started up the trail to the north. It was going to be a beautiful day. We made great time up the easy trail and we were happy to see much less snow in this basin. At treeline we continued into the high basin filled with green tundra. What a sight this was the first time I had seen green tundra in Colorado. Up the trail we went as we began seeing more people below us coming up. We were not alone but we saw some pretty cool people. We made the summit of Redcloud Peak to bluebird skies and took a nice half hour break. We now noticed why it's called Redcloud since the summit area was made of bright red colored rocks. Mandy decided to turn around here while I continued to Sunshine Peak. The traverse was very easy with a trail nearly the entire way. Made Sunlight about 20 minutes later just as a big group was starting the hike back. Was on the summit myself. I made the return all the way back to the Grizzly Trailhead very quickly to see mandy waiting with a nice couple who offered to give us a ride down the 3 miles of road we had walked up. Thank you for that!

First views of Handies Peak from the trail

The upper basin

Sunrise from the Cinnamon Pass Road where we slept

Sunshine Peak Summit Panorama