Santa Fe Peak

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 6/24/2024, By: sarahmariekirk
Info: Echoing the previous trailhead status update from "mijoflynn" on 6/11/2024 that the Forest Service sign outside Keystone said that all area roads except Peru Creek, including the Santa Fe Peak Road, were still closed. However mijoflynn indicated that there was no gate on Santa Fe Peak Road so I decided to go check it out, with a backup plan on Peru Creek. Luckily my Jeep found the public lands pull-off around 10,800-10,900 as described in Bill Middlebrooks trailhead description (see TH update for more info). We started around 10,800 and we followed the road up to the ridge where we climbed Santa Fe -> Sullivan -> Geneva -> Landslide -> down a grassy gully off of Landslide and ran back down Webster Pass to Montezuma, and back up the road to our parking spot. This was a fantastic route - we saw one person all day who came from the other direction, and who was just as surprised to see us! We did go ridge direct for some interesting class 2+ along the Geneva ridge to make it more interesting, but this route is as tame as it gets. We did not bring microspikes, and we did not need them. Probably stepped in snow 3x total, everything else was entirely avoidable. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 6/11/2024, By: mijoflynn
Info: The Forest Service sign outside Keystone said that all area roads, including the Santa Fe Peak Road, were still closed, so I parked at the Peru Creek gate and humped it to Montezuma. (They opened Peru Creek Road in the course of the day, btw.) However, there is no gate on Santa Fe Peak Road, and if one were inclined, they could absolutely get any Subaru or SUV to the 10,800' spot. The road is clear all the way to 11,500', at which point there's a half-mile of one- to two-foot-deep snow blocking vehicles (pics 1 and 2). The snow poses no problem for hikers. From the saddle up to 12er Morgan Peak, all snow is avoidable if you stay on the west side of the ridge (which you should do, because it's heavily corniced on the east side -- pic 3). From the saddle up to Santa Fe, there's sporadic snow on the road, but nothing that requires traction or flotation (pic 4). The direct line in Middlebrook's pic 6 has less than the main road does. There's a bit more snow on the south side of Santa Fe, on the way to Sullivan. It's avoidable if you go out of your way, but I just booted through the scattered patches. I decided not to go over to Geneva and Landslide (late start, extra mileage from Peru Creek, early-season lack of conditioning). But that route looked to be largely snow-free as well; still lots of snow on Webster Pass, however (pic 5). ~ 13.5 miles, 4000', and great views of the south side of G&T, from Morgan especially (pic 6). 

Route: south gully
Posted On: 5/28/2024, By: rachel
Info: Skied Santa Fe Peak this morning. Started from Webster Pass Road, near the junction of Bullion Mine Road. Small segments of non-continuous snow on Webster Pass Road. A few patches of dry, grassy segments in the lower gully. Overnight freeze, sunny, and minimal wind. Skied nice corn at 1030. 

Route: North Ridge
Posted On: 9/24/2023, By: Danger_D
Info: Summer conditions. Driving up CR 264 I easily got my RAV-4 up to 11,000 but could have gone up higher 

Route: Geneva Creek Rd
Posted On: 8/6/2023, By: nedryarson
Info: Did the Santa Fe to Landslide ridge run as a loop from the Sill Mine/Geneva Township area (39.572928, -105.822013). Ascended straight up the bowl from Sill Mine to reach saddle between Santa Fe and Sullivan. Descended some very steep grassy slopes a bit east of the Landslide summit down to Josephine Lake. Beautiful spot, buddy took a dip in the lake which was crystal clear. Picked up a mining road below the lake back to car. The narrow upper Geneva Rd has been graded very recently and was in great shape. Still takes about 50min to reach from the paved Guanella Rd. Saw a Forrester at the top. Also several Jeep/UTV nuts who were driving all over the clearly signed "No Motorized Vehicles" areas. 

Route: Montezuma
Posted On: 7/17/2023, By: angry
Info: Alpine start of 3pm. Dry to summit. Lots of mountain bikers on the CDT. 

Route: Montezuma’s Revenge
Posted On: 5/14/2023, By: Sbenfield
Info: Hiked along with other 13ers Sullivan, Geneva, and Landslide. Generally followed the well written TR by Supranihilest called Montezumas Revenge. Fortunately, no revenge was taken today. Prior to Santa Fe Pk, we added on 12er Morgan Pk which was convenient to avoid the large amounts of snow on the road . Following Landslide Pk, we descended down Webster Pass to complete the loop. Snowshoes and spikes recommended. 

Route: SW Gullies
Posted On: 5/7/2023, By: k_fergie
Info: Moody weather today, kept the corn frozen. Santa Fe still skied decently well. The two snowfields now have a ~150ft break in between them at about 11.7k where the gully splits off towards Sullivan. Webster pass road is still skiable until you hit the main plowed road that heads up to the Bullion Mine. A few spots were thin and will require portaging soon 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 10/9/2022, By: krishcane
Info: Still great conditions, just a touch cold. The 4WD Santa Fe road had no unusual obstacles and was snow-free to 12,500. After that, around 4 inches of condensed snow on shadier slopes and no snow on sunnier ones. No need for special traction. I continued to Sullivan, which was snow-free. Summit conditions were temps around 25 to 30 degrees and winds at like 20 mph. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 8/19/2022, By: wineguy
Info: From previous trip reports I was concerned that the crux of the route would be the "mad dog" at the residence around 10,700' on FS 264. Others have insisted the dog was friendly. To avoid the issue I drove up the road to 10,900', and two dogs barked menacingly as I drove by. Relatively easy drive in a light-duty SUV, crux on the road was just above the canine residence. Road gets progressively worse higher up, but an experienced driver could get a jeep to just below the summit. I passed two women on my return who had walked by the residence and said both dogs were friendly, guess they like people more than SUVs. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 8/1/2022, By: kwhit24
Info: Parked at 10,400' right after the first turn on CR 264. There's room for about 3 maybe 4 cars there. Overall the hike is pretty straight forward making quick work up the road to below Santa Fe. Nice ridgeline walking all the way to Webster Pass since it is all CDT. I could've cut down right after Landslide but I had time, good weather, and wanted 13,205. Between Geneva and Landslide is less than 100' while there is about 200' between Landslide and 13,205' (almost the same height as Landslide) so it actually feels like another peak. After getting to Webster Pass it was 5.5 miles of road walking back to to the car. Got passed by probably 20-25 vehicles before I got back to the car. (14.65 mi; 4,012' gain; 6:00:14 total time) Start at TH 5:45am; Santa Fe Peak 7:45am; Sullivan Mountain 8:10am; Geneva Peak 8:45am; Landslide Peak 9:05am; 13,205 9:35am; Back to TH 11:45am 

Route: Geneva Creek Rd
Posted On: 7/23/2022, By: dwoodward13
Info: Walked up Geneva Creek road to the end near the Sill Mine. From there headed up a grassy slope to the north of the low saddle north of Santa Fe Peak. This worked well. Looked like heading up to the ridge further to the south of Santa Fe would also work well as there is long stretches of grass. A lot of the terrain to the ridge looks very loose, but there are more grassy options. Ran the ridge over to Landslide. Stretches of trail here and there. Pretty straightforward. Dropped back down into the basin just north of the Landslide summit. Descended grassy slopes (very steep) toward Josephine Lake. Found an old 4x4 road that dropped down to the Iron Fens and took that back to the Geneva Ck Rd. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 7/14/2022, By: LetsGoMets
Info: Parked on what looked like National Forest property at about 11,000 at a switchback and had no issues. Easy 7 miles RT from there of summer condition 4x4 road. 

Route: North Slopes
Posted On: 6/19/2022, By: d_baker
Info: Parked on Santa Fe rd at 10,900' and walked road from there to summit. No snow to worry about. Some running water from melting cornice up top. Easy walk, but I didn't do the loop of other 13ers. ~7miles and ~2200' gain. 

Route: Silver Wave
Posted On: 6/4/2022, By: dleflar
Info: Parked at snow mobile parking area. Road is clear and powerline bypass is pretty much clear of snow. Webster Pass road is clear but wet all the way to the lower gulley entrance. Gulley is clear of snow all the way to the split for cable line and silver wave. Upper slope below and next to silver wave mine has hard packed snow from base to top of 4x4 road. South side of summit is snow covered hard pack. Cable line side still has a rather gnarly cornice hanging out due west of summit on ridge heading down and west. The saddle between Santa Fe and Landslide is patchy hard pack snow with the north side of Landslide being relatively clear or navigable to the top on pockets of ground anyway. The trail further on to Geneva looked clear on the north side of the summit