From our suggested parking spot just north of South Rock Creek, walk down the road, cross the creek, then turn up east on an old roadbed not indicated on more recent maps, but shown on the USGS quad. There is now a large log fence blocking vehicle access to that road, nevertheless, in 2017, we saw clear signs that a larger vehicle of some type had managed to drive most of the way up this old road. As of 2017, the roadbed is easy enough to follow, but within a decade, vegetation may begin to obscure it unless it receives enough hiking visitors to keep a trail established.
Following the road east, it climbs steadily all the way to its terminus. It's a little boggy in places and grasses are overtaking portions of it. About a mile up, you'll enter into the burn area with a forest of standing conifers, stripped bare of their bark and showing mostly unharmed wood. The road departs the main stream and heads more SE, continuing through burned out forest. At about 1.5 mile in, the road makes a switchback to the left at 10,821 ft. You can follow it on as it contours north, then turns back east to end abruptly after a short distance. From here, you can struggle to find a route up the steep embankment and onto the NW ridge of Hunts. The forest is all burned here and erosion has stripped away a lot of the soil leaving a lot of small rocks that almost form a cobble that's difficult to get good footing on. In 2017, vegetation was just beginning to get re-established here.
Another way up however, starts from the switchback. In fact, there are two options here. At the switchback, there's a good-sized cairn. It marks the beginning of a cairned route that heads more or less east to gain the NW ridge. The other option is to follow the main drainage path SE to a saddle just west of the knoll at 12,100 feet, directly west of the Hunts summit. In all three options, reaching that knoll is the objective. The drainage route had a little more vegetation being re-established and helping to provide some better footing through more burn area. Hiking through all this burn area provides an opportunity to study the way in which the land recovers after a fire. One of the more interesting things we observed is that we never noticed any new, young conifers coming back up.
From the 12,100 foot knoll, head east, dropping to a saddle, then begin the final 1,000 foot ascent to the summit. The remaining distance is mostly tundra with some embedded rock, and at times, areas of boulder talus to cross, but it is fairly easy going all the way to the summit, which surprisingly, had a fair amount of tundra coverage as well. Once on the summit, one of the more interesting views will be that of Hunts Lake to the east. You'll also enjoy nice views of Mt. Ouray to the NW and the summits above Bonanza more to the west. You are now on the central "spine" of the Sangre de Cristo. Two miles along the central ridge to the south is Red Mountain. At 12,994 feet, it is a worthy objective worth considering, being only six feet short of qualifying as a 13er. Crossing that two miles will require about two hours one way on some tundra, embedded rock and plenty of boulder talus. Our general advice is to stay on the ridge crest and avoid the temptation to contour around the two bumps on the ridge. It was easier to just go over them rather than around.
If you do head for Red Mtn., there is really no alternate way back other than to walk back the two miles toward Hunts. At about 12,800 feet on the south ridge of Hunts, you can easily contour back over to the west ridge of Hunts and avoid having to go back over the summit. If doing Hunts only, simply return the way you came. In 2017, it took us a ten hour day to go up Hunts, traverse to Red Mtn., then return.
Links to other information, routes & trip reports for this peak that may be helpful.