Hike Summit Peak, The Unicorn, Montezuma Peak Loop Rio Grande National Forest, CO

Jun 11, 2022 — Summit Peak is the high point of the Southern San Juan Mountains, located deep enough to deter many visitors, despite its immense beauty. After the long drive on an overall good dirt road (sedans likely have to go slow for the last few miles, and shouldn't be out this far without good tires), Yossi and I set out from the trailhead. Our loop would take us along the Treasure Creek Trail first.

Starting high up meant we would be above treeline pretty quickly. After a nice stroll through some trees and tundra on the good trail, we made one big switchback and headed back into the forest briefly. Here the trail was a bit more difficult to follow (around 11400'), both because the trail seems to have eroded away to some extent and because of a bunch of downed trees. We emerged above treeline again and realized the trail was no longer a helpful tool in navigating since the tundra was wide open, but after a few hundred feet we did find it again and continued along the trail as it wrapped around a slope and Summit Peak came into view.

A bit of pleasant ascending got us to the junction with the Continental Divide Trail, which we'd be returning to after getting to Summit Peak. It looked like getting to the summit from the north side of the peak would mean horrible and potentially dangerous scree, so we followed the CDT south for a short time and when the southeastern slope of Summit Peak was clearly a tundra slope rather than scree, we left the trail to get to the base of the steep slope. Fortunately the footing was good or the steepness would have been brutal. A few hundred quad-killing feet got us to the eastern ridgeline of Summit Peak, where the views were excellent and the summit came into view.

After reaching Summit Peak's summit and backtracking to the CDT, we followed the trail as it headed generally north below the northern face of Summit Peak, an impressive and convoluted mess of rock. The CDT had some excellent views of Summit Peak the farther away it took us. We passed a small unnamed lake and soon were at the base of our next 13er, The Unicorn. It made the most sense to leave the trail and just head north along the ridgeline to get to the summit, Class 2. Rather than backtrack, Yossi and I decided we might as well just follow the ridgeline to get the lower sibling bump (um, why was the excellent name "The Unicorn" wasted on a two-bump summit?). Alternatively, you could drop back to the CDT and skip the extra bump, whose north ridge had a Class 2+ move to get down.

Now at the base of Montezuma Peak, our final 13er for the loop, we observed the scree-looking ascent. It was much less bad than it appeared, never exceeding Class 2 and with overall good footing. Toward the top the grade steepened, but it still wasn't anything to complain about. After taking in the views from Montezuma Peak (especially if you go slightly north of the summit), we dropped off the peak's Class 2 east ridge, crossed over the CDT, and descended a steep grassy slope to the south to just above treeline. Rather than go down all the way initially, we stayed just above the treeline and traversed east, our goal to have minimal bushwhacking. Plus the views were still excellent. Once we decided to drop down, the slope was open enough to be pleasant and at around 11400' we reached Treasure Creek. Here a social trail had been formed from likely both animals and humans alike, the gorgeous cascading creek introducing waterfalls and lovely nature sounds. I'm not sure how far up the social trail leads, but once we stumbled onto it on the creek's rim, we had no problems following it all the way back to the trailhead.