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:
We climbed this peak directly after the ascent of Redcloud Peak. See the
description of the first part of the route there. From the summit of Redcloud Peak
one can easily see Sunshine Peak and a very distinct trail that connects
the two peaks. The trail stays mostly on the west side of the ridge crest. The
traverse takes about half an hour and is an easy walk. 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.
Resources:
Images
Sunshine Peak,
as seen from Redcloud Peak, this looks easy.
The Grand Tour de Sunshine,
This picture, taken from the upper slopes of Handies Peak,
shows Redcloud Peak (left above the two
thin stripes of snow), Sunshine Peak (to the right) and Sundog (in front,
somewhat hard to see). All three peaks belong to the somewhat
darker mountain across the valley as seen on this picture.