Hunts Peak (13,071) by Brian Schultz Sunday September 1, 2013
Roundtrip mileage: 5.7 miles from South Rock Creek trailhead (elev ~9,750')
Elevation gain: 3400'
Start to finish: 5 hours 5 minutes
This is one of those peaks where finding the trailhead, even in daylight, could be harder than climbing the peak. I spent a lot of time poring over maps and reading trip reports to find out how to reach the trailhead and unintentionally found a much easier and more straightforward approach to it. I didn't realize it though, until the morning of the climb when I unwittingly drove past the trailhead and was steered back to South Rock Creek by a local hunter who'd never heard of Hunts Peak but knew the roads and creeks. I highly recommend the following directions to avoid the confusion of the many roads in the area.
Directions to the trailhead:
Drive south on Highway 285 from Poncha Pass for approximately 4.5 miles and turn left (east). If you turn onto a road leading to a gravel pit, get back on the highway and drive south to the next road, which comes up quickly. This isn't signed from the highway but it is signed shortly after turning onto it. At the first junction (N Decker Creek & S Rock Creek), turn right. At the second junction (unsigned, but a post is still standing), turn left. This is the junction where other trip reports say to turn right but I turned left because it was dark and I simply missed it, much to my good fortune. This road, FS 980, enters Rio Grande National Forest through an open gate and continues to the third junction, (N Decker Creek & Rock Creek). Turn right on the Rock Creek road and drive a half mile (4 wheel drive) to the trailhead. It's that simple. Two wheel drive cars can get as far as the third junction and there's also an excellent campsite on the right side of Rock Creek road just after turning onto it. I overnighted at this campsite.
I began hiking at 7:30 AM on the old road behind the fence. Despite the late hour and an unfavorable weather forecast calling for 60% of storm/showers at noon, I was positive I could make the summit and be down safely. The road goes 1.3 miles to a sharp switchback in the road, initially paralleling South Rock Creek's right side and continuing through burn areas from the June fire before reaching this switchback. It took 50 minutes to get there and it's marked with a cairn. One trip report suggests leaving the road here and bushwhacking up to Hunt's west ridge but I stayed on the road for a quarter mile as it turned left and circled around the north spur of Hunt's west ridge before fading out.
After the old road faded out, I made a steep bushwhack (to the right) up the spur, passing through more burn areas until gaining the top (elev 11,765) at 9:10. Once on top of the spur ridge, the views opened up to Hunts Peak. I continued along the spur to a point on the west ridge (elev 12,075) and reached it at 9:35. From the point it's still a thousand feet of elevation gain and just over a half mile to Hunt's summit. The weather was nice and sunny when I arrived on the summit at 10:25 and I sat down for an extended break after signing the register.
The views were quite nice and I enjoyed a twenty five minute stay, even though the clouds were building quickly. I departed at 10:50 and by 12:00 noon, as if on cue, thunder started rumbling and the skies started turning dark. I picked up the pace and reached my truck at 12:35 just as it began sprinkling.
