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Mountains of Minerals: Denver Pass to Grouse Gulch

San Juan Triangle | Sunday & Monday, August 31 – September 1, 2025

After staying home to attend a concert on Saturday evening, I was up early on Sunday morning and headed down to the San Juan Mountains so I could spend the remainder of the holiday weekend hiking and camping in the San Juan Triangle, which is one of my favorite areas to explore in the mountains. After making it over Red Mountain Pass to Silverton, I followed the Animas River to Animas Forks and then continued up the North Fork to Denver Lake. I parked nearby and then started my first hike of the day up the old mining track to Denver Pass. Although I have already hiked most of the peaks in this area and driven all the open roads, I had neglected to hike up to this pass before and was looking forward to finally checking it out!

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Red Mountain Creek: Ironton Park to Peters Pass

Mountains of Minerals | Friday – Sunday, August 1-3, 2025

This weekend I headed up into the San Juan Mountains near Ouray so I could hike a few new trails and explore some of the old mining ruins that are found along the upper reaches of Red Mountain Creek from Ironton Park up to Peters Pass. The weather forecast for the weekend was looking pretty dry, but there was bound to be some smoke in the air from all the wildfires currently burning in the southwest this summer. As usual, I left from work on Friday afternoon, stopped for a quick dinner in Delta and then continued up the Million Dollar Highway to the Red Mountain Mining District for my first hike which would take me to the Corkscrew Gulch Turntable and American Girl Mine.

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The Orange Cliffs: North Trail & Millard Canyon Rim

Friday – Sunday, November 5-7, 2021

This weekend I decided to spend a little time hiking and exploring along the Orange Cliffs in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, which are the tall Wingate Sandstone cliffs located to the east of Robbers Roost and to the west of The Maze. Since I have already hiked all of the official trails that descend from the Island in the Sky and the Canyon Rims Recreation Area, I thought it was finally time to check out the North Trail which descends from North Point to Elaterite Basin. Most people that hike this trail use it to access The Maze when they don’t have a vehicle that can be driven down the Flint Trail, but since I’ve never had that problem I never really had a reason to hike it before, so I was looking forward to finally checking it out.

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Mountains of Minerals: The San Juan Triangle

Friday – Sunday, August 27-29, 2021

This weekend it was time for me to head back down to the San Juan Mountains near Silverton so I could hike to the summit of a couple new peaks in the area. The San Juan Triangle, which is roughly defined as the area between Ouray, Silverton and Telluride, is one of my absolute favorite places in the state to explore the high country, and over the years I have been working to hike as many of the peaks in the area that I can. This time I was planning to hike Eureka Mountain and California Mountain on Saturday morning since they are both right by each other and pretty much surrounded by other peaks that I have already hiked. I had actually planned to do these hikes a couple of weeks ago, but that trip was cancelled when I was stopped by a mudslide on my way up to Red Mountain Pass, so I was happy to return this weekend.

Cinnamon Pass Peaks & Anvil Mountain

Friday – Sunday, September 7-9, 2018

After visiting the High Uintas Wilderness for the first time last weekend, I figured I’d stay a little closer to home this weekend to spend some quality time back in the San Juan Mountains. The summer season in the mountains is coming to an end soon and I’ll be heading off to explore the Colorado Plateau on my weekends in just a few short weeks. Midddle to late September is actually my favorite time to hike in the mountains since they are less crowded after Labor Day, the alpine tundra is already changing color, the aspen trees usually start to change color, and there are less worries about afternoon thunderstorms since the monsoon season is coming to an end. It’s a great time of the year to get in some peak bagging! Last September I headed up to Engineer Pass for a little hiking around this time of the year, so I thought I would return to the area and hit up Cinnamon Pass this time. Although I hiked to Cinnamon Mountain from the pass a few years ago, there were still a couple of peaks nearby that I hadn’t got to yet.

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Tag: boiler

Mountains of Minerals: Denver Pass to Grouse Gulch

Red Mountain Creek: Ironton Park to Peters Pass

The Orange Cliffs: North Trail & Millard Canyon Rim

Mountains of Minerals: The San Juan Triangle

Cinnamon Pass Peaks & Anvil Mountain