Handies, Redcloud & Sunshine Peaks | Colorado San Juan's Hiking Journal

Handies, Redcloud,

& Sunshine Peaks

Handies,

Redcloud, &

Sunshine Peaks

Colorado

July 5-6, 2025

I made my way to the San Juan mountain range for the 4th of July weekend for my first 14ers in the area.

It’s about a five hour drive from Denver to Lake City, the last town you pass through before heading up into the mountains. It’s a super cool mountain town with some fun bars, a nice mining-era-looking downtown, and a gas station primarily servicing ATVs.

About 45 minutes beyond Lake City on Cinnamon Pass Road you arrive at the Burrows Park Dispersed Camping area for the Silver Creek trailhead up to Redcloud and Sunshine Peaks. There’s loads of parking spots and places to camp and it was fairly busy for the holiday weekend. The road to the trailhead isn’t too bumpy and can be done in a SUV but is on the edge of a cliff for part of the drive.

I went to bed early for my 4am wake up the next morning. I started up to Redcloud Peak at 4:15am and after some time walking in the woods you weave through a gully and a beautiful meadow before approaching the ridge line.

The trail is super straightforward. As you approach the summit there’s about 500 vertical feet of loose scree and kitty litter that totally sucks but otherwise it’s a pretty easy hike.

I reached the top of Redcloud peak at 7:15am and had the top all to myself. After a quick snack I made the mile walk over to Sunshine Peak and arrived at that summit by 8:15am. I was back over to to Redcloud at 9:45am and back down to the car at 11:45am. While you can suffer up a steep scree field on Sunshine if that's your thing, it is recommended to ascend and descend via the same route on to Redcloud (there is even a sign on the trail saying to safely descend via Redcloud).

The wildflowers in the meadow were beautiful and the weather was absolutely perfect. According to Alltrails the hike is 11.5 miles and 4,600ft. It took me about 7.5 hours to complete. Both Redcloud and Sunshine Peaks are on the shorter side at 14,037ft and 14,004ft respectively. Only four feet above the 14,000 foot threshold, Sunshine is the shortest 14er in Colorado.

The drive out to the Silver Creek trailhead for Redcloud and Sunshine Peaks and a summit mouse

Redcloud Peak from the gully early morning (image 1) a look back to Redcloud Peak from Sunshine Peak (image 4) a look up to Redcloud Peak under the ridge line (image 6) Sunshine Peak from the Redcloud summit (image 7) and a small pond on the walk back to the trailhead (image 8)

Handies Peak stands at 14,048 feet within the Handies Peak Wilderness Study Area. Rated as a short class one hike it is probably the easiest of the Colorado 14ers to summit.

From Burrows Park campsite (the same trailhead as Redcloud & Sunshine) you can take the Silver Creek/Grizzly Gulch Trailhead up to Handies Peak (8 miles and 3,600 feet) or drive another four miles up Cinnamon Pass Road to the American Basin Trailhead. American Basin is the more popular route up to the Handies Summit and is only 5.3 miles and 2,400 ft.

After the Redcloud & Sunshine trailhead the road really deteriorates and most of the vehicles I saw were high clearance or ATVs. There are two parking areas near the trailhead, the first is about 0.3 miles before the actual trailhead. The last 0.3 up to the final parking lot is the worst portion of road.

The parking lot/campsites at American Basin Trailhead are absolutely gorgeous and you have a great view of the surrounding mountains from the parking lot. After a couple of ramens I called it night. I slept in the next morning and started up the trail at 8:30am. It’s such a short hike one early hiking party was already finished by the time I got started.

The hike has beautiful views the entire way up. As far as effort to value, this might be the top of the list for 14ers in Colorado.

I made it to the saddle around 10am and flew the drone for a bit before the final effort up to the top. I summited at 10:30am, and was back down to the car at noon.

The Redcloud/Sunshine and Handies pairing makes a lot of sense for a weekend since the trailheads are so close and I saw some of the same hikers on Saturday and Sunday. It’s a pretty straightforward weekend for three very scenic fourteen thousand foot peaks.

The road up to the Handies trailhead (image 1) my camp spot (image 2) and looking down from the summit of Handies (image 3)

The view from the summit of Handies, you can see Redcloud and Sunshine Peaks in the distance on the left side (image 1) wildflowers near the trailhead (image 2+3) and a view of the Handies Wilderness Area from the saddle of Handies Peak (image 4), I returned to hike Handies for a second time on September 20th with some friends and the colors looked totally different as the seasons began to change (images 5-9)