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Jun 12, 2022 — Sheep Mountain, Bennett Peak, and Windy Mountain are a nice triplet of peaks in a remote section of the San Juan Mountains, though only Bennett Peak is a 13er amongst the group. My body was a bit fried from the last few early season high elevation days back-to-back, so we omitted a couple of other 12ers we originally planned to include with this loop. From the trailhead, which is accessible by any vehicle (though you should have decent tires), Yossi and I set out along the South Rock Trail. It will be tempting to just follow the old roadbed, but the trail actually begins by dropping east into a drainage.
The South Rock Trail is ATV-accessible, so expect doubletrack and some dust. After a bit of easy hiking along this trail, we made our way to just south of our first peak, Sheep Mountain. Although it's always nice to be hiking along gorgeous Colorado tundra, the landscape here has been a bit ruined by ATV trails. Leaving the trail, we ascended along the ridgeline to the summit, pausing only briefly on this pretty forgettable lump before continuing down Sheep Mountain's north side and merging with the West Frisco Trail. This was another ugly ATV road and it made the ascent feel like a bit of a slog. Somewhat steep and rocky, the road/trail took us to just below the summit of Bennett Peak. A quick jaunt on tundra led to the high point, but the rounded summit meant the best views were best seen from just east of the high point overlooking the little San Francisco Lakes below.
Next up was Windy Mountain. After backtracking from Bennett Peak, we left the trail and continued east over a wide lump with a mellow grade, then descended again. I recommend keeping a little bit to the left here, since farther right has some talus that is easily avoidable via a nicer tundra slope. From the base of Windy Mountain, the slope climbed at a pretty consistent and agreeable grade all the way to the summit. While there was some light rockiness, it was a straightforward ascent and the views at the top were our favorite of the day.
The southern face of Windy Mountain is riddled with cliffs and hoodoos, so we backtracked along the ridge and dropped south below treeline when the cliffs dissipated. I recommend looking on a satellite map as you descend this slope since there are parts that are full of trees/brush, while others are meadow and easy walking. We were able to avoid the majority of the foliage in this manner, and it made for a nice shortcut back to the South Rock Trail.
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