8/24/2020 Route: From Minnie Gulch Posted On: 8/24/2020, By: supranihilest Info: I drove up to 11,500 in Minnie Gulch and parked at a small parking lot near, but not at, the end of the road. The road is rough but my Sprinter did fine. From the parking area I hiked south on a good trail for almost exactly a mile, then did Point 13,069 first, returning to where I left the trail and then simply heading east instead. There are a few grassy strips heading up the slopes south of Cuba Benchmark, the best one is the one farthest south. I went up the one in the middle on my ascent and it was very steep at the top and would be a pretty miserable descent route, but the one just to the south is more moderate and made for a good descent. Once up the ridge Cuba's cliffs block easy access to the summit ridge but contouring around into a talus field on the east side gives easy, Class 2 access to the summit ridge. I returned down a slightly different, more southern grass slope as mentioned. This one is more easily identified by the black kitty litter gully you have to cross to get to it. Down the slope and back to the trail from that point. |