Route Description

From Lake City, drive about 2 miles south on Colorado 149 and turn right on County Road 30 toward Lake San Cristobal and Cinnamon Pass. From the start of the 30 road, it's nearly 16 miles to the trailhead. Stay right near 11.8 miles. After 12.5 miles the road becomes more rough, and between 13 and 14.5 miles it's a shelf road that hugs the south side of Sunshine Peak. Before 16 miles, reach the trailhead in an open area. Parts of this road are rough, but when it's dry good-clearance 2WD vehicles should be able to get to the trailhead.

Details:

From the Silver Creek trailhead parking area, hike northeast up the hill on an old road (the trail) - Photo #1. Near 11,100', leave the forest and continue on the trail as it parallels Silver Creek on your right. After about 1.5 miles from the trailhead, and near 11,300', the trail gets close to the creek. Continue northeast along Silver Creek And pass several areas where red rock has piled up on the left side of the creek - Photo #2. Taken near 12,000', Photo #3 shows how the terrain begins to open up as you enter the basin ahead. Continue on the trail as it curves around to the right (southeast) above the creek and enters the center of the basin at 12,200' - Photo #4.

This area usually has snow in early summer. To this point, you have hiked approximately 3 miles and gained 2,000' of elevation - Photo #5 looks back down on the route. Follow the trail south across the basin and begin to ascend the slope below the saddle between Redcloud and Point 13,561'. Zig zag up the easy slope to reach the 13,000-foot saddle - Photo #7.

Up to your right (southwest) the trail climbs Redcloud's Northeast Ridge - Photo #8 and Photo #9. The summit is less than 3/4 mile away but loose scree makes the ridge the crux of the hike. Begin climbing and, after about 200', you will reach the loose stuff. Carefully ascend loose scree on the right side of the ridge before shortly regaining the ridge crest. Hikers trying to bypass this area have created another trail section that heads west across the slope before having to climb more terrain back up to the ridge. It doesn't matter which "trail" you take here, the scree is unavoidable. The upper 1/2 of the ridge is easy with a good trail - Photo #10 was taken near 13,700'. Near the top of the ridge, the summit is off to the left but you must first gain a false summit ahead - Photo #11. Reach 13,900' on the false summit where the final summit pitch comes into view - Photo #12. Follow a good trail south up to the summit. Photo #13 and Photo #14 were taken on top.