Always good when you spend some time in the San Juans. I think it is my favorite mountain range in the state. After climbing Uncompahgre and Wetterhorn recently, we decided to bring the families with us and see which of the kids might be up for climbing something a little easier, so we set our sites on either Handies or taking on Redcloud and Sunshine. Since it was our boys 2nd outing (first one being Evens from the lake), and my daughter's first outing we decided to go with Handies. Unfortunately my daughter started feeling a cold come on as we were driving up on Thursday.

We stayed in Lake City at the Alpine Village cabins, which turned out to be a fun little spot and luckily had wifi and TV which in the end was good since my daughter was not feeling well enough to hike with us on Friday morning, so she stayed behind and hung out in the cabin with my wife (who I think was secretly relieved to stay behind). The plan was to spend several days in Lake City or round about and also get a hike in and Handies was the peak of choice this time.

There were a lot of posts about the road up to American Basin, and really the description on 14ers.com is quite good. But so much depends on how comfortable you are in your car, skills, and wheel placement. We had a Geo Metro behind us all the way up to the Grizzly Gulch Trail head. So that should tell you all you need to know about the lower part of the road. Past Grizzly Gulch it did get much more interesting. We were in a Honda Pilot and made it all the way past the 2nd stream crossing with no trouble at all other than to back up in one part and take a different approach. Past the stream we then parked in the open areas about 1/4 mile shy of the TH parking lot. We probably could have made the last 1/4 mile but we hadn't scraped up to that point and figured we didn't want to push our luck, the last stretch there would be intense for an AWD stock vehicle like a pilot (possibly doable if you dont mind scraping a bit). So we added another 1/2 mile and 200 feet of vertical to the hike.

As for the hike, the trail is well marked and obvious the entire way to the top.

We started hiking at 8:00 am, weather report was clear for the day so we were not too worried plus it is a relatively short hike. So we were in daylight the entire time. The flowers were still blooming and gorgeous and the views from start to finish were amazing. We passed by volunteers with the Colorado Fourteener Initiative setting log steps. Hats off to those guys, they do an amazing job! Being a relatively short hike it does steadily climb most of the way, other than through the basin just below Sloan lake where you level off for a bit, but then it is mostly a climb the rest of the way.

The last stretch to the summit is pretty steep, and there is a lot of loose gravel on the trail making it kind of slippery, but we found that was more of a risk on the way down where everyone landed on their backsides at least once when your shoes slipped out from under you.

The views from up top were amazing, you can see every 14er in the San Juans from Handies' summit. With really good views of Redcloud and Sunshine to the east.

We took our time and enjoyed the views along the way, including (and highly recommend) taking a detour over to Sloan Lake, where there were lots of fish jumping, and the water was clear and views of the surrounding peaks were stunning.

Total hiking time was 5.5 hours (including all the breaks and detours), elevation gain ~2800 feet over 6.7 miles total. Overall it was a great peak for beginners, and a rewarding peak for any skill level. Left my son wanting more and excited to go again, I think we will be making a trip back soon to do Redcloud and Sunshine. We then spent the next couple of days hanging out in Lake City (which I also highly recommend), had a day on the lake, some time on dirt bikes, and also spent some time in the local Ice Cream shop (The San Juan Soda Company) where they make their own waffle cones in house and if you time it right they are still warm. My daughter is celiac and they were really good with her allergy making sure to not cross contaminate, so shout out to them too. Overall a great time in the San Juan mountains.