Redcloud Peak and Sunshine Peak

August 31, 2019 / 14,034’ (Redcloud) & 14,001’ (Sunshine)

RT STATS: TOTAL TIME - 7 HR & 30 MIN, 12.49 MILES, AND 4,640’ ELEVATION GAIN

TIME STATS: 2 HR & 29 MIN TO Redcloud Peak, 22 MIN AT Redcloud SUMMIT, 30 min TO Sunshine, 39 MIN AT Sunshine SUMMIT, 55 min back to redcloud, 2 HR & 34 MIN back to TRAILHEAD (from redcloud)

RATING (HOW MUCH I LIKED THE HIKE): 10/10

Redcloud Peak and Sunshine Peak would be my 23rdand 24th14ers. I was pretty excited! We left the Matterhorn Motel a bit after 5am. It is kind of nice being 2 hours behind Eastern Standard Time. Even though I am a morning person, it felt like I woke up at 6:30 am (instead of 4:30 am). After a couple miles of paved roads leaving Lake City, we turned on to County Road 30, which we would be on for about 16 miles before arriving at the Silver Creek/Grizzly Gulch trailhead. The road was kind of sketch for a couple miles.

We arrived to the trailhead a little bit before 6:30 am and it was pretty packed. I didn’t know this until we got there, but this trailhead is shared with Handies Peak. This trailhead for Handies Peak is not for the easy 5.75 miles/ 2,500’ gain route. That route is a few miles further down Country Road 30. The route from this trailhead is a couple miles longer and about 1,000’ gain more.

We began the hike at about 6:40 am. The first bit of the hike was just standard hiking below treeline. There are a few stretches of man-made log step things that I have encountered on some other 14er routes. I don’t like them—they don’t fit in with my stride with how awkwardly spaced out they are. We saw some avalanche damage along the side of trail, but none of the damage was on the actual trail.

At about 40 minutes into the hike, we encounter a snow field (!!!) that we walked across. I had read some about Redcloud/Sunshine Peak and saw that the route can hold snow well into the summer. We wasted about 5 minutes trying to initially go around the snow through the woods. Looking back on it, I have no clue why we did this, but we did. The snow was easily crossed…Oh well.

About an hour and 10 minutes in (at about 12,000’ elevation), we reach a relatively flat stretch of the hike. We still were slightly gaining elevation for the most part during this stretch, but it was probably a solid 30 minutes before we started gaining any significant elevation. 

We reached the saddle (about 13,000’) a couple minutes shy of 2 hours. So, it was about another 1,000’ of gain up to get up to Redcloud Peak. I left my dad at this point so I could “hammer” (I really was just hiking pretty fast) the last 1,000’. You have a nice clear view of the summit at about 13,900’ (last picture below).

I reached the Redcloud summit at 2 hours and 29 minutes (4.75 miles). My dad reached the summit 14 minutes after me. The summit of Redcloud Peak is super cool, I wonder why it’s called Redcloud?!?!?!?!?! Maybe this is what walking on Mars looks like……

We left the summit at 2 hours and 51 minutes to head over to Sunshine Peak. About 5 minutes after we left Redcloud, I told my dad that I wanted to run over to Sunshine. He didn’t wear a pack on this hike, so I gave him mine and started my run over.

It was extremely fun running over….I ran all of the parts that I could, but definitely sped walk some parts because I was scared of hurting my foot. Running this stretch makes me so excited to try trail running in the future!!! It took me 30 minutes (1.41 miles) to go from Redcloud to Sunshine Peak! The final 200’ feet of the ascent to Sunshine, I powered walked up talus as seen in the pictures below. It was a little to uneven for me to want to run up this. Exciting news….I got the all-time Strava course record for females for the stretch from Redcloud to Sunshine. For males and females, I am #2 all-time!!!! Haha trust me, I’m not big on Strava segments, but I thought this was pretty cool when I uploaded the hike when I finished :)

I chilled at the top of Sunshine with nothing but my phone for about 25 minutes until my dad arrived!! The views and pictures from Sunshine’s summit were cool, but I still like Redcloud’s summit more. We left Sunshine’s summit at the 4 hour and 1 minute mark to head back over to Redcloud.

It felt odd hiking instead of running this stretch, I must say. It took 55 minutes to go back over to Redcloud from Sunshine. We didn’t stop at Redcloud this second time around, though, we just kept hiking on.

The hike back to the trailhead was pretty simple and nothing noteworthy. During the hike, we had talked about also knocking off Handies Peak after we finished, but I decided I would just save my energy for adding on Uncompahgre tomorrow after Wetterhorn. More pictures for the appreciation of the snow.

I am obnoxious and, for the fun of it, I like to finish hikes under a time barrier (30-minutes increments). We were just chilling on the hike down, but at 7 hours and 28 minutes, I saw the parking lot and started running. I hate to say it, but I finished the hike in 7 hours, 30 minutes, and 25 seconds. So sad. Final stats of the hike were 12.49 miles, 7 hours and 30 minutes, and 4,640’ elevation gain.

During our drive back, I had already finished my trail mix that I packed so I had a think! Brownie Crunch bar. I take back what I said in my Mt. Belford and Mt. Oxford post…. These bars really aren’t that bad. I am still finishing the box of 6 that I bought at the beginning of July, but, still, they actually are okay. We ate at Lake City Café a sort of lunch/dinner (4 pm). I ordered a brisket sandwich and a pecan-crusted chicken salad. I intended to eat all of this food at once, but I ended up saving the salad for a few hours later. Both were extremely good!!!!!

We got back to the motel and I showered and then started doing some homework. Holla Matlab (Systems Lab) and Machine Design….yay Georgia Tech ME!!!!!! My dinner consisted of the aforementioned salad, a lot of graham crackers, and a bit of trail mix. Fun times before Wetterhorn and Uncompahgre tomorrow.