LoJ: #448 (Pre-LiDAR #461) / 13,240' "Weminuche Peak" Formerly UN 13220 A
N 37° 36' 37.76", W 107° 27' 36.36"
(Not Field Checked)
UN 13229 [Formerly UN 13222 B]
Peters Peak
Peak Summary
Like Peters Peak, "Weminuche Peak" is one of the easier summits to reach in the Rock Lake area. It's a Class 2 ascent on mostly broken, quartzite rock. As with all the Rock Lake/Moon Lake summits, the closest vehicle access is the trailhead north of Hunchback Pass which requires 4WD. From there, strong backpackers can make it to Rock Lake in a day. Others will want two days to pack in where you can establish a base camp as suggested in the approach. Lidar added 20 feet of elevation to this summit.
UN13,220 West Ridge Route
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Bear Creek/Hunchback Pass/Kite Lake TH
WARNING: This trail head approach REQUIRES 4WD with good ground clearance. The drive as described below from Silverton may take up to 2.5 hours.
From the Town of Silverton, and where the main road splits at the NE end of town, drive 4.2 miles NE up along the Animas River on blue-signed County Road 2 to Howardsville. Turn right onto FR589 up Cunningham Gulch and stay right at the turn for the "Old Mine Tour" (4.4 miles) but do take the left fork toward Stony Pass (FR737) at 5.9miles. Once on the Stony Pass Road, expect 4W conditions. The road climbs steeply to the pass. Abundant wildflowers as you approach the pass may delay you. Once across the pass, the road becomes FR520 and eventually leads to Rio Grande Reservoir, but you will not drive that far. The road eventually descends down the valley to a low water crossing of Pole Creek. There are several primitive campsites on both sides of the Pole Creek crossing. Watch out for the steep embankment climb out on the east side if the road is wet from rains. You could easily slip off the edge. After the crossing, continue south for under a mile to another fork where you'll turn right (west). Another long, low water crossing is found here across the Rio Grande River. This crossing is usually more shallow than the Pole Creek, but the closer you are to runoff season, the more difficult these crossings will be.
It is also possible to come into this area from either Creede or Lake City over Slumgullion and Spring Pass to Rio Grande Reservoir. From state highway 149 either about 20.5 miles from Creede or 32 miles from Lake City, turn west onto FS520 and drive all the way to the reservoir on the well-signed, graded dirt road. Passenger cars can make it all the way to the "Lost Trail Campground" at the far west end of the reservoir. Beyond that point, FR520 continues west and crosses some rugged sections before connecting with the other section of FR520 coming down from Stony Pass and the low-water crossing of the Rio Grande. We have never driven in all the way on this section and from those we know who have, they have complained about one particularly difficult stretch.
From the Rio Grande crossing, continue up what is now, the Beartown Road for a slow 4 miles (mainly because of potholes) to the former location of Beartown. (There's really nothing left to see there, but just before the road crosses Bear Creek, beyond the old townsite, there is some good camping. The road goes all the way to Kite Lake at about 12,100 ft., but the Hunchback Pass trailhead is about 1/2 mile below the lake. There's a trail sign there and some very limited parking is available. Road Notes as of 2018: About half the distance toward Beartown, the road crosses an unnamed creek and at that spot, there are some difficult mud/potholes that have really been dug out. Longer bed vehicles may have some difficulty getting through. Take it slow. Closer to Beartown, the road passes through a fence line. At that point, the road conditions will begin to deteriorate and become more rocky as it begins to gain some elevation.
As the road begins climbing more steeply toward Kite Lake and the Hunchback trailhead, after crossing Bear Creek, it becomes quite a bit more rocky in that stretch as well. For a long section, the road is deeply entrenched in the middle because of runoff and the trench tends to fill with loose rocks. If you have driven in here to do the Ute Ridge group of summits, camp in the vicinity of where the road crosses Bear Creek just past the old Beartown site. See coordinates below. From that creek crossing, it's not quite .3 mile to the trailhead for Ute Ridge, which is a jeep track that turns off to the left and drops down to cross another lesser fork of Bear Creek. Park somewhere along this track if heading for Ute Ridge. On the Caltopo map, this trail is called the "Bear Town Trail" and designated FR869. On trails Illustrated Map #140, it does not appear to have a designation. Coordinates for this road & trailhead are: N 37° 42' 54.53" W 107° 30' 35.00". You can find a good camp spot here as well. You can also find some additional camp spots within a few hundred yards of the Hunchback Pass trailhead. One of those spots goes off to the south to an old mining area.
Camping
You can find some very limited camping spots in the immediate vicinity of the Hunchback trailhead. There's one particularly good spot back down the road a fairly short distance on the south side. There's also some good camping back toward the Beartown site. See coordinates provided.
Campsite Locations
Beartown Campsite › N 37° 43' 05.02", W 107° 30' 35.47"
Route Description
Year Climbed: 2004The mileage for this peak from either the campsite below Rock Lake or the campsite at Moon Lake works out to nearly the same, as does the elevation gain. If you're backpacking over the pass between the two lakes, it would make some sense to simply climb the peak from the pass, starting at the 12,400 foot contour. This route description starts the ascent from Half Moon Lake, which is where we dropped our packs to make the quick climb.
From Half Moon Lake, head east to a saddle south of the west summit of Weminuche Peak. Initially, this is not steep and passes over some nice tundra with a plethora of wildflowers. The amount of rock increases as you approach the saddle. From the saddle, we decided to head directly up to the west summit, just for the sake of it. Hiking north, there's a steep section of large boulders to scramble over for about 200 vertical feet, then things level out a bit, and you continue on smaller, broken rock. Trip your way on up over all the rock until you arrive at the west summit, less than an hour from Half Moon Lake. Descend east along the ridge toward the true summit. Then begin the final ascent over more broken, endless quartzite rock. Along the way, you may notice some rocks with some well developed quartz crystals. The traverse should take about a half hour.
From this summit you have an excellent view of the Flint Lakes area and toward Rio Grande Pyramid. To descend (you can also skip the west summit and ascend this way) head back to the saddle between the two summits then make a contouring descent SW over tundra and rock in the direction of the saddle south of the west summit. Keep elevation up so as to avoid a steep, cliffy section and intersect the south ridge of the west peak above the saddle. Then descend down to the saddle and return to Half Moon Lake.
Additional BETA
Links to other information, routes & trip reports for this peak that may be helpful. -