San Luis Peak Trip Report 08/06/2007

Peak(s):	San Luis Peak - 14,023 feet
Date Posted:	08/06/2007
Date Climbed:	08/04/2007
Author:	Kzar

San Luis - Stewart Creek Trailhead
Mountain: San Luis Peak (Elevation 14,014 ft) Trailhead: Stewart Creek Trailhead Elevation: 3,600 ft Distance: 13 miles Date: August 5, 2007 Hike time: 3:45 to the summit; 6:15 minutes round trip Overall Impression: A beautiful hike through the forest for the first four miles combined with quite solitude. The last 2.5 miles is an unimpressive climb but you are rewarded with fantastic views of the San Juans in the west. Description: We stayed in Gunnison and drove to the Stewart Creek trailhead early on Sunday. From US 50 and 114 it took ~1.5 hours to reach the trailhead. Bill's directions on the website are accurate and seem much easier than Roach's directions. I have some minor updates to the directions. After you are on 15-GG, about 4.1 miles on the road you cross a cattle guard, stay to the right when the road splits. There is a street sign saying 14-NN / 15-GG about 50 yards down on the left. Also, there is a y-junction just before the signed intersection. Stay right, there is a 4x4 post that has FS 794 marked. I calculated 16.1 miles to the signed intersection, but it could be I didn't reset my odometer at the right spot. Lastly, the dirt roads are very well graded with only minor washboard sections. The night before it rained hard and left some sections of mud. While I think on a dry day a passenger car would have an easy time, in the mud it maybe a bit of a struggle. The standard route description and most of the trip reports cover this trip fairly accurately. The first four miles is a nice hike through a forest that parallels Stewart Creek. This part of the hike is very pleasant, with an easy grade. You are in the trees so it stays fairly cool during the hike. Every now and then you get a beautiful view of the mountains at the end of the valley. Most of the time you never see San Luis, but two neighboring mountains. Here are pictures of the view up the valley. There are a lot of beaver ponds all the way up and I spent a lot of time looking for beaver, moose or other wildlife along the creek. No such luck, just a lot of beaver dams, beaver ponds, beaver houses amongst all the willows. I did see a fox sneak away about 40 feet off the trail. The brush was pretty thick so I didn't get any good pictures. On the way down we saw 4 deer crossing the trail from the creek up to higher ground. They were very skittish and ran up the hill and out of sight in a matter of seconds. No pictures of the deer either. Here are pictures of the many beaver ponds. Approximately 2 miles in there is an old cabin right off the trail. Here is a picture of what is left of the cabin and another picture of the trail through the trees. On the way up there are two stream crossings. The first is a double crossing with logs across the stream. This is an easy crossing this time of year as the water isn't flowing all that hard. The second stream crossing was almost irrelevant. Here's a picture of my wife making the crossing. The area received quite a bit of rain this past week and the wildflowers are in full bloom. The previous day I was in Yankee Boy basin climbin g Sneffels and the wildflowers were out in full force there as well. The San Juans are just beautiful this time of year with all the wildflowers blooming. My favorite place being American Basin at the base of Handies, the last weekend of July. The wildflowers are truly amazing there. Heres a picture of the upper end of Stewart Creek and wildflowers on the bank. After about four miles you leave the trees and enter the basin at the end of the valley. Your destination is the saddle to the south or your left. The trail is easy to find and stay on and much more pleasant than all the scree fields common with many 14ers. The beginning of the climb starts in a marshy field. Here the field has overgrown the trail but you can easily pick up the trail again in the next 100 feet or so. The climb to the saddle is the steepest section of the entire climb. Here is a picture of the saddle. After climbing to the saddle you finally have a good view of San Luis. It isn't an impressive sight, just a long sloping ridge. From this ridge you have a beautiful view to the south and also back down the valley to the trailhead. Take some time to enjoy the views before the remaining hike to the summit. The picture below shows the route to the summit. The hike here is almost always walking on broken rock. Sometimes the rock is smaller than baseballs, other times a little larger. To me it was like walking on unsettled cobblestone along the side of the ridge. The hike up to the summit is a more gradual slope and easier than the climb up to the ridgeline. The views to the south or southwest are beautiful. The summit is fairly small, but breathtaking. Even on this cloudy day it was easy to see Wetterhorn and Uncompaghre in the distance. On a clear day I'm sure that more of the San Juans are visible. Below is a picture of Wetterhorn from the summit. On the summit half the people had climbed from Willow Creek? We had some people from Kentucky, Telluride, Creede (or thereabouts) and I believe Iowa. We didn't stay long on the summit to avoid the rain that was obviously already coming down to the south and brewing almost directly over Baldy Alto. Fortunately we made it down with little rain and no lightning. Here's my son and his friend on the summit. This is my son's 4th and his friends 2nd 14er. This is clearly a long class 1 hike far away from anywhere. It is a long drive to the trail head from Denver and probably requires either camping or lodging in Gunnison or Creede. There are plenty of camping spots for people near the trail head since this is not a heavily traveled area. Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

San Luis - Stewart Creek Trailhead

Mountain: San Luis Peak (Elevation 14,014 ft)
Trailhead: Stewart Creek Trailhead
Elevation: 3,600 ft
Distance: 13 miles
Date: August 5, 2007
Hike time: 3:45 to the summit; 6:15 minutes round trip

Overall Impression: A beautiful hike through the forest for the first four miles combined with quite solitude. The last 2.5 miles is an unimpressive climb but you are rewarded with fantastic views of the San Juans in the west.

Description: We stayed in Gunnison and drove to the Stewart Creek trailhead early on Sunday. From US 50 and 114 it took ~1.5 hours to reach the trailhead. Bill's directions on the website are accurate and seem much easier than Roach's directions. I have some minor updates to the directions. After you are on 15-GG, about 4.1 miles on the road you cross a cattle guard, stay to the right when the road splits. There is a street sign saying 14-NN / 15-GG about 50 yards down on the left. Also, there is a y-junction just before the signed intersection. Stay right, there is a 4x4 post that has FS 794 marked. I calculated 16.1 miles to the signed intersection, but it could be I didn't reset my odometer at the right spot. Lastly, the dirt roads are very well graded with only minor washboard sections. The night before it rained hard and left some sections of mud. While I think on a dry day a passenger car would have an easy time, in the mud it maybe a bit of a struggle.

The standard route description and most of the trip reports cover this trip fairly accurately. The first four miles is a nice hike through a forest that parallels Stewart Creek. This part of the hike is very pleasant, with an easy grade. You are in the trees so it stays fairly cool during the hike. Every now and then you get a beautiful view of the mountains at the end of the valley. Most of the time you never see San Luis, but two neighboring mountains. Here are pictures of the view up the valley.

There are a lot of beaver ponds all the way up and I spent a lot of time looking for beaver, moose or other wildlife along the creek. No such luck, just a lot of beaver dams, beaver ponds, beaver houses amongst all the willows. I did see a fox sneak away about 40 feet off the trail. The brush was pretty thick so I didn't get any good pictures. On the way down we saw 4 deer crossing the trail from the creek up to higher ground. They were very skittish and ran up the hill and out of sight in a matter of seconds. No pictures of the deer either. Here are pictures of the many beaver ponds.

Approximately 2 miles in there is an old cabin right off the trail. Here is a picture of what is left of the cabin and another picture of the trail through the trees.

On the way up there are two stream crossings. The first is a double crossing with logs across the stream. This is an easy crossing this time of year as the water isn't flowing all that hard. The second stream crossing was almost irrelevant. Here's a picture of my wife making the crossing.

The area received quite a bit of rain this past week and the wildflowers are in full bloom. The previous day I was in Yankee Boy basin climbin

g Sneffels and the wildflowers were out in full force there as well. The San Juans are just beautiful this time of year with all the wildflowers blooming. My favorite place being American Basin at the base of Handies, the last weekend of July. The wildflowers are truly amazing there. Heres a picture of the upper end of Stewart Creek and wildflowers on the bank.

After about four miles you leave the trees and enter the basin at the end of the valley. Your destination is the saddle to the south or your left. The trail is easy to find and stay on and much more pleasant than all the scree fields common with many 14ers. The beginning of the climb starts in a marshy field. Here the field has overgrown the trail but you can easily pick up the trail again in the next 100 feet or so. The climb to the saddle is the steepest section of the entire climb. Here is a picture of the saddle.

After climbing to the saddle you finally have a good view of San Luis. It isn't an impressive sight, just a long sloping ridge. From this ridge you have a beautiful view to the south and also back down the valley to the trailhead. Take some time to enjoy the views before the remaining hike to the summit. The picture below shows the route to the summit.

The hike here is almost always walking on broken rock. Sometimes the rock is smaller than baseballs, other times a little larger. To me it was like walking on unsettled cobblestone along the side of the ridge. The hike up to the summit is a more gradual slope and easier than the climb up to the ridgeline. The views to the south or southwest are beautiful.

The summit is fairly small, but breathtaking. Even on this cloudy day it was easy to see Wetterhorn and Uncompaghre in the distance. On a clear day I'm sure that more of the San Juans are visible. Below is a picture of Wetterhorn from the summit.

On the summit half the people had climbed from Willow Creek? We had some people from Kentucky, Telluride, Creede (or thereabouts) and I believe Iowa. We didn't stay long on the summit to avoid the rain that was obviously already coming down to the south and brewing almost directly over Baldy Alto. Fortunately we made it down with little rain and no lightning. Here's my son and his friend on the summit. This is my son's 4th and his friends 2nd 14er.

This is clearly a long class 1 hike far away from anywhere. It is a long drive to the trail head from Denver and probably requires either camping or lodging in Gunnison or Creede. There are plenty of camping spots for people near the trail head since this is not a heavily traveled area.

Thumbnails for uploaded photos (click to open slideshow):

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