Handies Peak

Every year at the end of July, my extended family stays in some cabins in the San Juan Mountains of Southern Colorado for one week. This year I could only go for part of one weekend, as I was saving vacation time for a 2-week trip to New Zealand in the fall. As such, there was only time to do one significant thing. I decided climbing a 14er was the best bang for my buck!

As with any 14er, starting early is a necessity. We woke at 5:15, and drove another hour and a half to get to the trailhead around 7-7:30. Along the way we saw a moose or two, and stopped a couple time for pictures.

We decided on the Grizzly Gulch Trailhead because I thought it was the easier one. I was wrong, the other one (a class 1, 5.5mile round trip hike) was up the road another mile and a half or so. That just meant that we got the whole 8-mile trail to ourselves!

The entire hike up was full of wildflowers and lush underbrush, a rare sight in Colorado otherwise.

Along with the wildflowers, animal life was all around, mostly in the form of Marmots or Pika.

One of the members of the group was having issues with the altitude, so I stayed lower with them while the other 3 went ahead and summited. So, I didn’t get any pictures at the top. But I did get some nice timelapses while we waited, and pictures!

When the rest of the group met back up with us, we saw a nearby snowfield and did the only logical thing…

…used an emergency blanket to sled down! It was super fun (and super safe!), and it cooled us off for our descent. Which wasn’t the best, because clouds rolled in quickly afterwards, threatening the daily afternoon thunderstorm. We heard a couple rumbles of thunder, but it never did rain on us while we were on the trail.

 

On the way back to the cabins we stopped in Lake City for the traditional reward for completing a 14er: The Ice Cream shop! Even though it was around 44F and wet at the time, the treat was too much to pass up!

Moose says thanks for reading