Castle Rock (9,792) & Red Hill (10,341) by Brian Schultz Saturday August 25, 2018

Castle Rock:

Roundtrip mileage: 1.6 miles from CR 187
Elevation gain: 800'
Start to finish: 1 hour 20 minutes

I drove north on Hwy 285 from Buena Vista and turned right on CR 187. The road winds around to the south side of the peak and that's where I parked. When I scoped out this route last year I noticed a sign saying the area is restricted between January 1 and July 31. This year, I was reassured to see no notice posted even though it was well into August. I crossed the tiny creek and began at 9:10 AM.

I referred to Ryan Kowalski's trip report and hiked below the cliffs to the gully that leads to the top. John Kirk reports that Castle Rock can be accessed from the other side and it's only a class 2 climb but I was up for the scrambling on this side. When I reached the steep gully, I picked my way up, sometimes the middle, sometimes on the right. There is plenty of thorny vegetation to brush through but not so bad as to worry about ripping pants as others have cautioned.

I scrambled from the top of the gully to the summit and claimed the top at 9:50. There are cool views from the summit considering the peak is only a niner. I departed ten minutes later and was back at my truck at 10:30. This was a fun little peak.

Red Hill:

Roundtrip mileage: 3.7 miles from Red Hill Pass
Elevation gain: 525'
Start to finish: 2 hours

After climbing Castle Rock I drove Hwy 285 to Fairplay and continued north to Red Hill Pass. There is a spacious parking area on the south side of the pass, near a gated road that goes south. A posted sign states no vehicles are allowed on the road but today the gate was open.

I started along the road at 11:45 AM and quickly turned up to the right toward some electrical utility poles. This is where a trail heads left toward Red Hill and has some trail markers initially but it's a faint trail and disappears at times. I pretty much kept a bearing using the summit waypoint in my GPS instead of trying to maintain the hit and miss trail. It was a bushwhack with lots of deadfall along the way but it worked.

I arrived on the summit at 12:40 and walked around several possible highpoints. There are no views from the top but I stayed anyway until 1:00. On my return, I intersected a road and soon surprised a fellow driving a 4x4 who wasn't expecting to see someone appearing out of the woods. He was friendly and had his dog with.

Whenever the road angled away from my bearing back to Red Hill Pass, I would just bushwhack through the woods and soon meet up with the road again. Eventually, I was able to stay on the road all the way back. It's the same road with the gate that I started from. Two more vehicles were driving the road from the pass and evidently didn't see the sign or didn't care. I was back at my truck at 1:45.