Finally-4th of July weekend in the San Juans

The San Juan Mountains of Colorado are in the southwest portion and are the largest mountain range in the state. A five day weekend meant we needed a long weekend to make the trip worthwhile.

We drove to Lake City and camped 13 miles up Engineer Pass near the trailhead for Redcloud/Sunshine/Handies, all of which we planned to hike in the next 2 days.

The weather was spectacular with very few clouds, no wind, and temperatures in the 60's both days. The first hike was Handies via Grizzly Gulch. We saw over 30 species of wildflowers in the two days. Lindsey's favorite is the columbine, which is the state flower. On the right is a picture of a columbine with Handies Peak in the background.

Scenery in the San Juans is very green with many flowers, and on this weekend, a lot of snow. Making the top we spoke with a few Costa Ricans and took obligatory pictures at the top. We even tried a new pose b/c it seems as though we do the same pose all the time(see left).

Day 2 was a hike up Redcloud and Sunshine, two more 14ers. We followed the route through a gulch bombarded by avalanches leaving 30 to 40 ft of snow, trees, and boulders in our way. Quite impressive how much power and avalanche has. First we came to the summit of Redcloud, defined by the reddish rock of the mountain.
Another 2 miles was required to get out to Sunshine Peak and back so Lindsey and Tucker rested on top of Redcloud while Brian went over to Sunshine. Here is a picture showing Brian with Redcloud in the background. If you look close you can see trails and maybe a person or two.

After these two days of strenuous hikes we relaxed at the campsite, had a few enjoyable beverages, and conked out because we were tired!

We packed up camp and headed into Lake City which we found out is about 70% Texans. Lunch was eaten at a Packer bar coincidently. Lake City had a huge yard/park sale to benefit their children's soccer teams so we donated a few dollars and got two books to read for the afternoon.

We decided to drive into the middle of nowhere to hike the least hiked 14er in San Luis Peak. Two and a half hours of dirt road with wood signs that one could barely read and we were there.

We pitched camp just before a windy thunderstorm with torrential rains came. Dry inside the tent we felt as though we were going to be blown away, tent and all. We survived unscathed and got a good night's sleep before waking at 5:45am to get started.

Hiking up San Luis is more like an 11 mile walk. The trail was awesome and so was the scenery. On the right is the peak we thought was San Luis, however; we still had a mile or so to go after going around this peak/mound, whatever. Lindsey led us to the top and was the first person to summit that day, hence the number 1 sign.

Done with our hiking for the weekend we headed for Gunnison where a hot tub and shower waited as well as drinks at the Gunnison brewery and dinner at an old west burger place.

Til next time....