Tremont Mountain (10,318), Thorodin Mountain (10,540) & Starr Peak (10,511) by Brian Schultz Thursday July 15, 2021

Tremont Mountain:
Roundtrip mileage: 1.85 miles from Gap road east of Panorama Point
Elevation gain: 970'
Start to finish: 1 hour 50 minutes

It's an easy drive from Golden to Panorama Point in Golden Gate Canyon State Park, where a nice view of Tremont is seen across the road. I paid a $10.00 fee there before driving a short distance east to my starting point.

I began at 11:55 AM under clear skies and hot weather on the Mule Deer trail, and was glad for the shade of the trees. After hiking west for a while I picked an exit point from the trail and bushwhacked up the slopes to the summit. This was straightforward but the effort coming from the Minnesota flatlands had me breathing heavily and stopping regularly. After a short visit on top, I departed (photo 1) and was back at my truck at 1:45.

Thorodin Mountain and Starr Peak:
Roundtrip mileage: 5 miles
Elevation gain: 1,775'
Start to finish: 4 hours 45 minutes

I waited out a storm before walking up the road from my same parking spot for Tremont. I found the trail to Thorodin and continued on it until overshooting the turnoff to the correct trail. The correct trail was a faint trail on the right side of the established trail but I didn't lose much time backtracking to it.

From that point on, the trail was great all the way to Thorodin. I climbed up 3 candidate highpoints before descending toward Thorodin's north point. This was difficult terrain, steep with lots of bushwhacking, and it seemed easier to just lose some elevation and aim for the road below that goes to Starr Peak.

The difficulty indeed eased as I descended to the road. The road itself was a steep grunt to Starr's summit but at least it avoided the bushwhacking. Starr has a modern building with an array of communication equipment and I stayed up there for a half hour. It was very convenient to make a call home before heading back down the road.

After departing the road again, I contoured the slopes below Thorodin. This was a strenuous effort. When I intersected Thorodin's trail, I then found another trail that led through grassy slopes and down to where I parked. This trail isn't marked from the road but it's a good one and worth finding. This was a big day overall for me on my first day in Colorado.