Raspberry Mountain (10,610) & UN 10966 by Brian Schultz Thursday July 17, 2025

Raspberry Mountain:
Roundtrip mileage: 5.10 miles
Elevation gain: 1,175'
Start to finish: 2 hours 35 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

I met Tim in Divide, Colorado after driving straight in from an overnight in Nebraska. We drove Highway 67 south from Divide and turned left (east) onto FR 383, passing by the Mennonite Camp, and parked in the trailhead lot shortly afterward. We began at 12:45 PM and followed a very nice trail, encountering several hikers on their descent, including two guys running down the trail.

We quickly encountered a cool rock formation. The trail is marked so one won't take a wrong turn at junctions. The summit requires a short scramble over boulders to reach the top, which was pretty easy and very fun. We descended shortly and were back at our trucks at 3:20.

UN 10966:
Roundtrip mileage: 3.50 miles
Elevation gain: 1,160'
Start to finish: 3 hours 10 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

We continued south on FR 383 and parked at the Crags/Devils Playground trailhead. Lots of parking is available here. We began on the excellent trail at 3:50 PM and hiked until seeing rocky slopes ahead. We departed the trail in a grassy area, thinking it would be best to gain the southwest ridge and then stroll to the summit. Great idea in theory. Reaching the summit ridge was straightforward but the ridge to the summit was replete with many boulders, some large, and made for slow progress to the top.

We were cliffed out at one point and had to backtrack and descend below the ridge a bit before regaining the ridge. This was tiring but we finally reached the summit at 5:40. We didn't expect it to take this long. It was also raining lightly off and on and the summit block was wet. And exposed. Tim spotted me so I could touch the top and we switched so he could do likewise. The views are terrific, especially looking toward Sentinel Point, which we'd be climbing in the morning.

Instead of retracing our steps all the way back down the ridge, we took a chance descending a drainage in the rocky slopes, hoping we wouldn't cliff out. It was steep and loose but it worked and we met up with the trail below. We were back at our trucks at 7:00, finishing a tougher climb than we expected.