Handies Peak

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 8/4/2024, By: TheBuff66
Info: Hiked on 8/1/24. Road to the TH (Silver Creek/Grizzly Gulch) was fine for my Crosstrek. I was worried about the shelf road but only 2-3 turns had pucker factor, it wasn't as intimidating as I expected. The majority of the 16ish miles to the TH was smooth gravel, and the shelf road had plenty of pull-offs to allow cars to pass if needed. The road got bumpier after making the right turn onto Cinnamon Pass but it wasn't any worse than your usual 14er road.

The hike was beautiful. My Garmin logged 7.93 miles RT in 4hrs 45min. You can cruise the first 3 miles but the final push from the ridge to the summit is much steeper and slows you down. Summer conditions, no route finding or traction required. Very obvious single track trail the whole way. I hitched a ride to American Basin the next day and that road is as bad as everyone says it is. If you don't have a genuine off-road capable vehicle, do not attempt. Pretty much every car at that TH was a Tacoma, Tundra, 4Runner, or Jeep. The East Slopes is a prettier hike anyway.

P.S. Cinnamon Mountain is a fun side quest, you'll see that trail branch off from Handies about 1mi up from the American Basin TH. That trail (the route from Grouse Gulch to Handies) brings you to the ridge, follow it down to the base of Cinnamon, and charge up off-trail. It was more fun than Handies in my opinion and added about 1hr 15min from the start of the branch-off to the summit 

Route: Up Grizzly down American
Posted On: 7/28/2024, By: daway8
Info: Wildflower update: flowers are at peak! Did the full loop going up from Grizzly Gulch side and down American Basin since heard both were excellent. But overall I thought American Basin won hands down. Personal rankings as follows; Grizzly Gulch side: C- for quantity/variety of interesting/unusual flowers; B- for great framing opportunities along the trail; B- overall look/feel. American side side: A- for quantity/variety of interesting/unusual flowers; A+ for framing opportunities along the trail; A for overall look/feel. By framing opportunities along the trail I mean getting neat backgrounds without trampling on any flowers to frame the shot (no wildflowers were harmed in the making of this conditions report). Overall I'd skip Grizzly if I went back; decent spread from about 12k-12,300ft but just doesn't match American Basin side which has great flowers from about 12,200ft down almost to the trailhead at 11,600ft. Uploading photos. 

Route: Southwest Slopes
Posted On: 7/13/2024, By: overthe59hill
Info: Summer conditions. Beautiful blue sky on Friday, July 12, 2024. Too bad there is only a little piece of the survey marker (see picture). 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 7/8/2024, By: mijoflynn
Info: No one's posted a CR from Grizzly Gulch yet, but several people were doing this route today, and it's in full summer conditions. Wildflowers are exploding all over the lower half of the hike; the columbines especially are in peak form.

If you're going this way, I highly recommend taking a short side trip to the spectacular lake below UN 13,801; on the way down, I left the Handies trail at about 12,175', and contoured across grassy slopes until I hit an unmarked trail that took me right up into that basin. Just an extra .75 mile and 350' of gain, and totally worth it. 

Route: Southwest Slopes
Posted On: 7/8/2024, By: BillMiddlebrook
Info: Summer conditions to the summit! 

Route: Southwest Slopes
Posted On: 6/30/2024, By: j12miskin
Info: Summitted Afternoon of 6/29. Took the road from Lake city all the way to the lower American Basin trailhead- after the silver creek trailhead it definitely requires 4WD with medium to high clearance, there are two creek crossings which my Outback was able to navigate but I did see part of a front bumper at the edge of one of them. Trail has 3 or 4 small snow crossings in the middle part which were inconsequential and easily navigable, most of them will probably melt out in the next two weeks. 

Route: Southwest Slopes
Posted On: 6/23/2024, By: ellaadler
Info: Lovely trail! We started hiking at 9:20 and we were done by 1:00. Some snow on the trail but it stayed packed in the morning, a bit of post-holing as we came down. Such a pretty hike! The road however was not so pretty. We were coming from Grand Junction and followed Google Maps. This led us to a left turn down County Road 18 past Ouray. Driving a Ford Escape, this road was unpassable. So we headed to Silverton. From there we attempted to go over Cinamon Pass & again, could not make it. For either of these routes, you need 4WD and a high-clearance vehicle. We overheard that the best road to the trailhead requires you to pass through Lake City. Follow the directions on 14er.com! We ended up catching a ride with an outstanding human named Chris & got to do the hike! Thanks Chris! 

Route: Southwest Slopes
Posted On: 6/21/2024, By: Eph 2 5
Info: I can't speak to the conditions on the Handies trail itself, but here are some pictures of American Basin on 6/19/24. Handies is on the left in both pictures. The summit is out of view in one of them. The pictures are taken from near Pt 13,535 (now 13,549) on the ridge to the west of American Basin. 

Route: Southwest Slopes
Posted On: 6/17/2024, By: JonW
Info: Came from the Grouse Gulch TH and got on the Southwest Slopes part way up from American Basin. Descended the East Slopes. Both had intermediate snow making route finding challenging at times. Most snow was encountered descending the saddle heading into AB. 

Route: Southwest Slopes
Posted On: 6/11/2024, By: wmagnuson7
Info: Much of the trail is covered in snow, especially the first half of the route, so route finding is annoying at times. I would leave snowshoes and ice axe at home, but bring gaiters. I would bring either poles or spikes for traction when postholing. Cheers! 

Route: Southwest Slopes
Posted On: 6/7/2024, By: MountainBuhn
Info: Parked at Animas Forks and hiked over Cinnamon to arrive at American Basin. AB is covered still, but the snow was rock solid even though it definitely didnt get below freezing the night before. Summited at 9:40am and still solid snow going down at 10am. Spikes recommended for sure, but snowshoes are unnecessary. Cant get to AB main trailhead yet. Look at my TH report for that. 

Route: West Slopes
Posted On: 5/31/2024, By: stickmann
Info: The lower parts of American basin still have a lot of snow. The west gully will probably be melted out soon but had continuous snow until 200 below the summit. The west slope route itself is mostly a slog but had a few moments of steep fun. I descended the southwest slopes route where there is very little snow left near the summit. There is one section of the trail that is interrupted by a small band of snow that Im glad I had an axe for. I carried flotation but never used it and was out of the basin by 10am. Snow was supportive all morning but I bet the basin will be a pain after a few more days of warming. 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 5/6/2024, By: AlpineSplit
Info: East Face is in great ski condition right now. First mile of the approach is a bit annoying with the snow patches, best to hike longer than you think. 

Route: East Slopes
Posted On: 11/10/2023, By: GreatGlissader
Info: Great hike, not too much snow. Road is dry to trailhead. Looked like more snow on the southwest route. 

Route: Southwest Slopes
Posted On: 10/16/2023, By: Montana+3
Info: What a beautiful and fun experience! Trail was wet, a little muddy in places, not bad. At 12000' there was about 5 inches of snow on the trail in spots. By 1300' we encountered any where from 1 to 2 feet of snow. From just above 13000' to the summit the trail was mostly clear of snow. A little muddy in sections, until around 100 yards from the summit. From that point to summit was dry. Very windy at the top, but WOW, amazing views. Highly recommend this hike. I had a bilateral amputee with me and she made it through the snow, very carefully. I would not recommend going after this date. The trail miles are not accurate at all. This is more like a 6.5 mile hike round trip.