How to get there:
Lake City is the natural reference location.
Go south on Hwy. 149 approximately 3.5 km, then turn right
onto the road to Lake San Cristobal. Drive around the lake and continue
up the valley on a good dirt road. A little more than 19 km from
Hwy. 149, the road forks and there are signs saying Silverton, Cinnamon Pass,
etc. This is the right fork that heads uphill. Continue about 6.5 km on
this road. The Silver Creek trailhead will be obvious, there is a separate
parking area on the right hand side of the road as well as an outhouse
(on the left hand side). The trail to Redcloud and Sunshine heads directly
off to the right (east). Route description:
The trail climbs gently along Silver Creek on its north side. We saw
a couple of large snow piles, clearly evidence of avalanche activity from
the winter. There are nice flowers, grass and meadows as one gets higher
into the nice and well formed basin north of Redcloud. The trail continues
to climb the saddle north-east of Redcloud. This saddle is at 3968 m.
From this point the trail gets a bit more rocky, but is easy to follow
as it switchbacks up the steeper section of the mountain. The slope then
levels off, climbs a small, rock point, descends slightly along the connecting
ridge to the main summit, then climbs the final hill, still on a very good
trail. Comments:
I did this hike with Pål Jørgen, age 12. We started at the
trailhead around 0700, hit the summit of Redcloud at 0915 (with Pål
Jørgen about 5 minutes ahead!). After about 10 minutes rest we hiked
over to Sunshine Peak (in beautiful sunshine!), resting there from around
1000 to about 1030. We made a "garnd tour de Sunshine" by traversing
the ridge to Sundog and connecting back to the main trail via the descending
ridge. Back at the Jeep around 1245, making the complete tour in a bit less
than 6 hours.