After researching several other trip reports and not being satisfied with any the routes described I decided to use the data available to create a new, hopefully better route which others might find useful.

Quick Stats

Trailhead: Ruby Gulch Trailhead

Route: Engelmann West Slopes - Robeson - Bard - Parnassus - descend Parnassus-Woods saddle

Milage: ~9mi RT (not counting my 1 mile accidental addition, which I deleted from the GPX tracks)

Gain: ~4,850ft according to GPS

Time: Just under 8hrs at a mostly relaxed pace (includes 30 minutes lost due to Robeson blunder). Averaged moving speed 1.5mph

Benefits of this route include:

• Entirely avoids the ugly gullies others have described having to choose between
• Avoids any backtracking (as many have done to tag Engelmann)
• Avoids adding at 12k peak (Woods) at the end of the day (so you don't have to create a listofjohn account to track it...)
• Actually manages to avoid any willow bashing despite dropping into a willow infested valley

I've almost gathered enough data with this hike to considering adding a route for this peak group (somewhat surprising no one has done that yet...) but I think there might be room for a slight bit of refining before trying to standardize this.

Included in this report will be:

• Listing with links and brief overview statements of several other trip reports that were especially useful in studying this route
• Description of how I veered off the (closed) 4WD road before the gullies that most other TR's describe
• Mention of the ACTUAL TRAILS getting you up portions of Engelmann (not all the way)
• A warning not to dismiss Robeson as some irrelevant little hump that you can bypass...
• A description of how to descend the Parnassus-Woods saddle for a willow-free trek to a defined trail

In keeping with my usual style, I'll put large bolded section headers to allow beta seekers to more quickly scroll through and extract data of interest.

Research Phase: Other Useful Trip Reports

Sometimes I do very little research on routes - just find the trailhead, see if it's class 2 or 3 or whatever and go. But for this one, in part due to the lack of a standard route, I did some extra reading.

There are plenty of other good trip reports out there but I'll highlight those which were especially useful in determining how to approach this loop.

• Boggy B has the earliest TR (Dec 2010) with GPX tracks included (Ruby Creek Winter 13er Fun) and the earliest one showing all 4 peaks (plus Woods). This was with the loop being done backwards of what most people seem to do. The descent path down Engelmann helped inspired my ascent route.
• awake has an Aug 2014 TR (Close by 13er Trio) which only covered 3 of the peaks but gave some good baseline beta including a snapshot of the route used up the 3rd gully.
• rajz06 did a Sept 2015 TR (Bard Quintuplet) with all four 13ers plus Woods and included a GPX file showing an ascent up the 4th gully with lots of painful backtracking and an even more painful Woods direct descent.
• goldenite did a Aug 2017 TR (Ruby Creek Quintuplet) with the helpful beta that there's now a small established trailhead with legal parking. Went up rib between gullies 2 and 3 (with the typical painful backtrack).
• supranihilest did a Sept 2018 TR (Bard Quintet from Ruby Gulch: Not a Diamond in the Rough) with GPX tracks going up the 3rd gully.

Most everyone seems to do Engelmann first and picks one of the ugly, loose gullies to fight up. Since I saw that Boggy B safely descended the West Slopes of Engelmann in December 2010 I figured it was safe to try an ascent of those same slopes. A couple of the reports referenced the fact that they thought it might be viable to descend the Parnassus-Woods saddle if desired. I did some satellite research that initially made me groan at the characteristic shading of willow territory but then made me optimistic there might be a way to avoid them...

Ruby Gulch Trailhead

First off, most reports show the "DANGER: Extreme Avalanche Danger" sign at the start of the trail and how there's a sign a ways before that which says no parking for the next 3 miles. But as goldenite reported, there is now an established trailhead just slightly before the avalanche sign which has a large sign titled: "Exploring the URAD Valley."

Since they spent 7 million dollars on their reclamation project it seems clear they intend for people to come enjoy it...

That trailhead can comfortably hold half a dozen cars - perhaps a few more if people park carefully.

Engelmann West Slopes Ascent.

So, as stated earlier, I didn't want to mess with going up the gullies the other trip reports described. Instead I decided to take my chances with a bushwhack through the woods up the West Slopes of Engelmann. I thought it worked out pretty well.

I noticed a couple little drainage gullies before you get to the 4 main gullies coming off of Engelmann. My original plan was to go up one of those little drainage gullies (labeled a and b in the snapshot below) but I actually ended up coming up between them and then hitting a faint trail that I followed horizontally along the slope until it started to descend so I curved upwards to try to meet the tracks Boggy B had uploaded.

Other than the slope angle shading highlighting the a and b drainages, there wasn't really anything else to make this stand out as a location to turn to go uphill. There is a slight wiggle in the road where I turned off, as shown in the photo below. I looked for the best opening in the trees and went at it...

I was concerned about how much bushwhacking I might have to do to get up above treeline but it turned out, with a little winding and weaving to avoid downed trees, patches of thick foliage and such, I made it with very easily without really any actual "bushwhacking" per se.

I even found a faint little remnant of a trail (marked by the waypoints a couple photos up) before having to leave it as it began to descend when I needed to go up.

This is one area where perhaps a future hiker can refine this route up the West Slopes a little more...

It's worth noting that this does get pretty steep at parts but never quite reaches the classification of the so-called "class 3 grass." I much prefer steep but stable ground like this over loose junk in gullies.

One example of what inspired the extreme avalanche danger sign at the trailhead is the major avy path you can see coming off NE lopes of Woods Mountain (see photo below). Winter hikers take note!!!

At around 12,900ft or so, as I was about to start scrambling up loose rock, a large wooden post caught my eye. When I went to investigate I was pleased to find a well established, cairned trail! I followed it most of the way up to the summit of Engelmann though it faded near the top.

Onward to... Robeson??

Getting the other three 13ers from here is pretty much a straightforward ridge stroll but I'll add a couple quick cautions:

1) Take note that there's a ridge going off to the east from Engelmann - super obvious that it's not the right way to go but I could maybe see someone getting misled in inclement weather...

2) Don't make the mistake I did of dismissing Robeson as an irrelevant little hump on the ridge that you can bypass (even poor lowly Cameron is more impressive than this bump).

It was with great agony that I backtracked half a mile after realizing my blunder (I edited my GPX tracks to delete that blunder and show the route I should have taken). I think part of what threw me off was that a lot of the other trip reports either didn't hardly put in anything about walking between the peaks, or I just glanced over it so I didn't know what to look for. As a result, with Torreys hiding behind Bard (and from that angel looking much closer than it is) I was fooled into thinking that Robeson was the next prominent peak with Bard lurking behind it (a more careful look would have clued me in on my error).

I was already at ~13,100ft up the side of Bard when I turned and looked back and noticed a hump that looked much more significant from this angel. My GAIA app doesn't mark the summits of any of these peaks and I had neglected to drop waypoints on them beforehand with the coordinates on this site. So I took my phone out of airplane mode, glad that I could get a signal to load to bring up the 13ers peaks on my 14ers.com app and to my horror I realized that I had strolled right past Robeson!

Anybody in the region that day likely heard my agonized groaning as I realized I now had to backtrack to avoid orphaning this puny little punk of a peak. But in my passion for revenge I flew back along the ridge, tagged the peak (including the little rock pile at the far end past the summit, just to be sure...) and was back to where I had left off in just over half an hour

Robeson did at least offer some good views of the valley below to help me continue to plot my eventual descent.

Onward towards Bard (again)

Going up Bard is pretty obvious - just stick to the ridge.

Despite my inadvertent detour to go back for Robeson, I couldn't resist an additional tiny little detour for this dramatic little rock pile just off the trail that I dubbed "Bard Spire." It's sloppy, loose class 2.5 - 3 to get over to this little pile of rocks but it provides some pretty cool views!

After that fun little detour (much more enjoyable than the backtrack to Robeson) I slogged on up to the summit of Bard.

From the summit of Bard there are some cool views of some well known 14ers...

On to Parnassus

From Bard to Parnassus the route finally starts to get a little more personality moving into more of a class 2.5 type terrain or perhaps a little bit of class 3 depending on how you pick your line.

Nothing difficult or exposed or anything - just a little more visually interesting than a flat slope up a hill.

Parnassus-Woods Saddle Descent

So I'm not at all interested in doing or tracking anything below 13k and as a result I decided not to bother with the 12k Woods but instead drop off from the saddle below Parnassus and Woods.

The trick is doing so in a way that doesn't send you through the miry pits of Willow Hell. Thankfully those who follow the straight and narrow path can avoid that fate. Well, actually this particular path isn't really straight... but the following description/photos will guide you on your way.

The trick is to drop off a little before the low point of the saddle - see the satellite view with GPX tracks (first photo in the report) as well as some other photos sprinkled along the way). The snow patches in some of the photos provide a useful reference point for comparison.

There are actual little trail fragments along portions of the hillside. I followed these for a bit but then there seemed to be a few variations so I followed the route I had eyeballed from studying the valley all throughout the hike.

There is one bare dirt gully that I aimed for then turned hard left to swing away from the willows then hard right to follow along the edge of the willows until eventually hitting the main trail.

I was very glad to have skirted entirely around all the willows up to this point. As I passed along the hillside below the trees and above the willows I then started to worry that I was finally going to have to willow bash. I followed the one small opening in the willows, certain the sadistic little bushes were merely leading me into a trap.

As I passed through the opening and scanned around, my hopes of getting through without willow bashing began to diminish until I barely caught sight of a faint brown line - could it be???

I walked that way to investigate - yes, a trail!!!! Saved at last, without ever needing to do any willow bashing!!!

After a little while the faint trail turned into a full on trail that then became the old 4WD road. Easy stroll from here on out. The only thing I didn't catch here was a good photo showing where to turn if you did this route in reverse (I'd recommend downloading my GPX tracks if you want to try that).

Take note that there are several stream crossings with old rusty drainpipes going over them. Some of them are very sturdy, others not so much - use them as a bridge at your own risk!

Once you see Red Mountain right in front of you, you know you're getting close to the trailhead.

My Times

5:29am start from Ruby Gulch Trailhead

7:41am on flatter tundra regions of Engelmann West Slopes

8:14am Engelmann summit

9:07am realized that I totally shot right past Robeson!!!

9:22am summited Robeson

9:41am back to where I had to turn around to go back and get Robeson

10:15am Bard summit

10:33am continue on

10:49am Bard-Parnassus saddle

11:24am Parnassus summit

12:02pm On valley floor weaving around willows and seeking the trail

12:40pm been on a solid trail for a while now

1:22pm back at Ruby Gulch trailhead