A trip repot known as "Tijeras Peak North Ridge and Music Mountain South Ridge Up with East Ridge Down" or "Cramming the Most Ridges into One Day Because Why Not"

Technically, we were there for more than one day, but these peaks were completed in one day along various ridges. There was some zig-zagging with various camp sites too over the weekend, but ultimately we had a lovely trip that consisted of Music Pass TH --> camping at Lower Sand Creek Lake --> Tijeras and Music Peaks --> Packing up at Lower Sand Creek Lake --> Hike to Upper Sand Creek Lake to set-up camp there --> Failed attempt-ish at Milwaukee Peak (if you even want to call it that) --> Back to Music Pass TH

This is a super fun duo of peaks. Spicy ridges for sure (mostly Music), but it's a blast! You'll be very proud of yourself after this one.

The stats, some of which are calculated because that's just how it goes when there's some zig-zagging involved:
- 7.7mi, 3600' gain: Trailhead to Tijeras to Music to Lower Sand Creek Lake
- Add an extra 3.45mi to get back from Lower Sand Creek Lake to Trailhead (calc'd)

More detailed stats:
- 1.75mi Lower Sand Creek Lake to summit of Tijeras Peak, apx. 2,130' gain
- 1.1mi from summit of Tijeras to summit of Music Mtn.
- 1.4mi from summit of Music back to Lower Sand Creek Lake
- Lower to Upper Sand Creek Lakes: 2.8mi, 680'

We started out the day by making our way to the Music Pass TH. I think my Subaru could have made it, but I was glad to be in a Jeep. It made life much easier to just crawl on up to the trailhead. There are lots of pullouts and parking spots along the road though if you can't make it. The trail starts right off the main parking area (which was plenty big by the way) and meanders up and through the forest. Parts of the trail felt like an abandoned road. Then you make your way up to the top of Music Pass and into the Great Sand Dunes National Preserve.

Once you've made it up the pass, you have to go down the pass... and then back up to the Lower Sand Creek Lake. Luckily the time goes by quickly on such a nice trail, especially with wildflowers already popping up. It took about an hour and a half at a very relaxed pace with heavy packs to make it from the top of Music Pass to the campsite at the lower lake.

After an adventure with a very loud, insulting man at the lake because we decided to take in the views (what a horrible mistake that was apparently), we setup camp. The camping is nice around there, but it's definitely more compacted toward toward other sites. Some nice streams though for flowing water to filter.

The next day we got up and started as the sun was hitting Tijeras Peak.

You hike around and then veer off the trail to hit a meadow above the lake, not quite to the cliff bands. We took a willow-filled way up toward the cliffbands, though, on the descent we learned, there is a willow-avoidant way. Follow that way. We then had the next obstacle of the morning: Finding the class 3/4 ramp to ascend to give us access to the peaks themselves. (There's a farther-back photo at the end of this trip report with some more details). The very first one we found was not right - we quickly backtracked that. We went a bit farther, to a grassy area, and found a ramp that seemed decent. Joe went right, I went left. Left was more accurate, so he back-tracked. Through most of this ramp it was class 3 ... however, the exit move was class 4 on very solid rock. There were two ways to go about it - no photos, but it'll be obvious. There was a cairn at the top.

We did hear that if you keep going farther there might be another ramp, but this one did the trick. It might just be some trial and error.

Alright, cool, big obstacle of the day - check! You made your way through the cliff bands. Now, forward to Tijeras! We opted to take the north ridge of Tijeras rather than the face. We went over essentially to the saddle between Tijeras and Music because it was the most friendly - grassy, gentle slopes rather than scree and loose rock. We then stuck to the ridge and made it to the summit. It's amazing how much wind cools you down though! Ridge proper was windy and chilly - drop down right to the side of the ridge, and it felt 10-15 degrees warmer. Bring back that windy AC!

The summit was lovely - the register had paper and a pen, and the views were incredible of course. You could see the entire Cleveland Group route, the Crestones, Humboldt, Music, and more. From this angle, you can really see the Red Gully on Crestone Peak, which was pretty neat.

And now just descend the way you came up - ridge the whole way back to the saddle, and ponder your life choices as you look at the S. Ridge of Music Mountain the whole way. "Ponder your life choices" you say? Why yes. I do say. It looks intimidating. And it is! It's fun though... let's get to it!

There's no bail point on this route from here forward by the way. If you want to bail, you have to go back down the grassy slopes you came, down the ramp (find the ramp), and then back to the lake. Everywhere from this point forward you're committed. The first portion of the ridge was fun. And you're on super solid, awesome Sangre rock.

If you don't like exposure, don't look. I don't mind it, but I still choose not to look. I knew it would be extreme, so it was easier to just focus on the task at hand. At one point (not pictured, but shortly after this section above) I did struggle a bit, but my two climbing partners did great. I think the long limbs helped. I couldn't go back, so forward was the only option. I had to try a few different options to make it up.

You'll scramble a few more times. It was hard to take photos, but hopefully some of these give a good indication of what it was like. There were a lot of fun sections, a few parts where you could stand and scope your next move, and then just keep climbing.

At one point there is a large notch. It sounds like some folks go up and over it - we opted to go to the backside and contour around. You'll see I look much more pleased contouring around rather than up a vertical notch with a very exposed move.

We stayed as high as we could reasonably stay with the rocks and sidehilling. After this section, Joe opted to do ridge proper and veered up. He said the moves were no harder than what we had done but there was serious exposure, more than what we had seen before it sounded like. I was pleased with the contour decision when the other two of us decided on going up the grassy/rocky slope face in the middle left of the photo. Definitely kept it at Class 2/2+.

Pretty soon you'll think you've reached the summit. No, you haven't. You've just reached where the East Ridge route meets up with the S. Ridge route you just did. Keep going. Still a bit to go. No, that's not the summit either. Nor that one - keep going to the farthest one, it's the highest according to the maps. Now you can take your break, be proud of yourself, try to escape the wind, and have a snack.

Now to head back down... just keep traversing along the ridge until you meet up with the east ridge route. We followed this down and labeled it a newly minted phrase "grass 3". It was slippery grass too. Some rock moves, one really shiny polished slippery rock move that every one does, and some more grass. We followed this ridge down the whole way, and it definitely kept the descent a bit spicier than a class 2 but not as bad as the S. Ridge (don't descend that way if that wasn't clear). Keep following the ridge to a nice grassy gully, and follow that all the way down. You'll avoid those willows you came across early this morning (we were thrilled).

The above photo is after we descended the Music East ridge and back down to the meadows. You can see the cliff bands blocking your access. See that grass patch in the middle of the photo, below the cliff bands, with snow to the left and snow to the right? The snow to the left was the first ramp we tried, which didn't work. We did not go as far as the second snow patch. We went up around that middle grass patch in the dark area. There's a great ramp there, and it worked out well. Granted, anything seems "easy" to find from this perspective as opposed to when you're at the base trying to find it.

Ultimately we had a 7-8 hour day for 4 miles but lots of fun, spicy scrambling. Funny to hear it in those terms with the stats! We didn't see another person all day until we reached the lower lake again. We took a well-deserved break and then broke camp. Joe and I headed to the upper lake to try for Milwaukee the next day (spoiler alert: normally we're great route finders, not for this one... We'll do Milwaukee another day). We ended up scrambling and hiking up and around the outcroppings around the upper lake, and it was a blast. The campsite, albeit full of bugs, was beautiful and more secluded than the lower lakes.

The hike out to the trailhead the following day was uneventful, even if we did see an elk skeleton. The ascent back up to Music Pass was never going to be fun, but it certainly wasn't as bad as you'd think. It took less than a half hour with head down and moving. The wildflowers were already popping this year too, so that made for some beautiful views.