Signal Butte (9,463), UN 9518, Truman's Rock (9,410), Hackett Mountain (9,433), & Cedar Mountain (8,945) by Brian Schultz Thursday Aug 21, 2025

Signal Butte:
Roundtrip mileage: 1.03 miles
Elevation gain: 545'
Start to finish: 55 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

After an overnight in Nebraska, I drove straight to the town of Divide, Colorado, and met Tim around 12:00 noon. We continued on CR 51 north to FR 363 (Phantom Creek Road), turned right at this junction, then left on FR 362 to the trailhead parking area. These roads are easy 2x2 roads but a bit slow. There is a nice view of Signal Butte from the trailhead parking area. We began at 12:50 PM on an excellent trail that leads to the summit. We reached the summit (photo 1, photo 2) in short order and enjoyed the terrific views before heading back down. This is an easy peak that can be done in less than an hour.

UN 9518:
Roundtrip mileage: 0.4 miles
Elevation gain: 145'
Start to finish: 13 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

After driving back to CR 51, we drove north to FR 202.1A (Truman Road) and turned left. This is a very short hike on a gravel trail to the summit. We began at 2:35 PM and were back at our trucks at 2:48. Ranked peaks don't get much easier than this.

Truman's Rock:

We drove from UN 9518 to the end of FR 202.1A (Truman Road) which only took a couple minutes. Truman's Rock is an unranked peak and consists of boulders (photo 1, photo 2) that are an easy scramble to the highest one. They're only a few feet from the parking area. Easy and fun.

Hackett Mountain:
Roundtrip mileage: 0.90 miles
Elevation gain: 375'
Start to finish: 40 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

We drove further north up CR 51 and parked off the road just east of the summit. We began at 3:45 PM and set a bearing west to the peak. It's an easy bushwhack and we happened upon a path between cut trees, a pseudo trail of sorts. Not sure why the trees were cut but it made the ascent to the summit (photo 1, photo 2, photo 3) even easier. Another short and easy hike.

Cedar Mountain:
Roundtrip mileage: 1.75 miles
Elevation gain: 660'
Start to finish: 2 hours 10 minutes
Participants: Tim Briese, Brian Schultz

Continuing north on CR 51, we got a nice view of the peak and parked shortly where a road supposedly existed in years past but no trace of the road could be seen, probably overtaken by tree growth over the years. We began at 5:15 PM by contouring east to a trail that goes up the south ridge to the summit. It wasn't the simple walk-up we thought it would be. Lots of ups and downs were encountered with plenty of rocks to maneuver around while looking for cairns.

We lost the trail for a short period but regained it higher up. Then we arrived where a ladder was bolted with a cable to a cliff wall. From the top of the ladder it was a short walk to the summit, marked by a large cross. The class 3 rating on the peak is well deserved and the views from the top are great.

On our descent, we crossed paths with a solo female climber on her way up. Carrying only a water bottle and wearing sneakers, we thought it was late to be heading up but she said she's done the route many times. We were back to our trucks at 7:25. We wanted to try to get another peak in, but not in the dark so we drove back on CR 51 to Divide and on to Woodland Park. The weather was in our favor to be starting so late for these peaks but that would change as a monsoon weather pattern would be rolling in within a few days.