Handies Peak

[Mzhapp2]

We are researching a summer hike and are looking for an easier 14er. We are looking at attempting Handies, but are looking for a town close to the trailhead. Lake City the closest or Silverton? We aren't campers anymore, but need to get a really early start as we are old and slow. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

[Scott P]

Lake City is closer, at least drive time wise. Silverton to the Handies Trailhead is a must slower drive.

[TallGrass]

What vehicle are you using, and what off-pavement (gravel, 4WD, 4x4, ...) experience do you have?

From Silverton is a 4WD approach to come over the pass. From Lake City is 2WD, and is same approach for Sunshine and Red Cloud. From Lake City you can also do Uncompahgre which is Class 1 except for a short stretch on the back side (like steep stairs), but you have to hike up Nellie Creek Road or take something with good clearance and a good driver to get to the upper TH.

[Mzhapp2]

We have a 2wd Equinox but are looking at a jeep rental for the day. No real experience off roading and not really looking for that experience, just looking for something with more clearance.

[Nelson]

Do the east slopes of Handies. You can get to the trailhead in a two wheel drive car and it is a beautiful hike. It is longer (8 miles and 3650 vertical vs 5.75 and 2500 vertical). I have done them both several times and would take the east slopes every time.

Nelson

[TallGrass]

We have a 2wd Equinox but are looking at a jeep rental for the day. No real experience off roading and not really looking for that experience, just looking for something with more clearance.

The Equinox will work for the 14er trail heads from Lake City along E.P. road and Grizzly Gulch, maybe American Basin, but you could just start Handies from Grizzly and loop via American (wildflowers) back and down the road. Higher clearance doesn't start until the dashed lines. There's also good, detailed BLM map of the Alpine Loop. More info at the BLM page.
The Alpine Loop is fun!

HandiesSunshineRedcloud.JPG (16.33 KiB) Viewed 2332 times

[acidchylde]

If you start from Lake City and only go as far as the Grizzly trailhead, you shouldn't need the jeep rental and it would probably be wasted. Up into American and it wouldn't be a bad idea. You might get it for a couple of days, hike one and then drive the loop the next. Even if you're not looking for off-road experience, the roads aren't particularly bad as long as you have the clearance. I will point out that even from Lake City to the Grizzly trailhead, there are some shelf road sections if that's any kind of issue for you. There's some info/photos/linked video of the road in this thread: http://www.14ers.com/forum/viewtopic.ph ... f&start=12" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Cruiser]

Lake City is a nice little town to spend a night or three in. Getting to the American Basin from town takes longer than you'd think though. Fortunately the drive itself is really beautiful. Rent the jeep for sure. No reason to have to stress over driving your own 2wd vehicle to the American Basin if you don't have to. Have fun, that's a wonderful area to go and play in. The wildflowers alone are worth the price of admission even if you don't end up making it to the summit of Handies while you're in there.

[Mzhapp2]

Thank you all for the info. The wild flowers are one reason I chose Handies. We already attempted Bierstadt and got turned around before the summit when weather rolled in. We were going to attempt Quandary a couple years back, but I had an issue with altitude sickness and decided not to go to the top. We wanted to try another area of Colorado and I was reading about the beautiful wild flowers. Wish us luck getting to the top...its something on my bucket list that I just can't seem to ignore

[acidchylde]

American Basin and the basin you climb through to get to Redcloud just across the road are two of the more spectacular wildflower spots I've been to. I don't remember much in the way of wildflowers going up Handies from Grizzly, but it may just have been the time of year. Personally, I would consider Redcloud easier than doing Handies from Grizzly. Of course, Sloan Lake between American and Handies is a big selling point too.

[huffy13]

We are researching a summer hike and are looking for an easier 14er. We are looking at attempting Handies, but are looking for a town close to the trailhead. Lake City the closest or Silverton? We aren't campers anymore, but need to get a really early start as we are old and slow. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

Lake City is definitely the town that has the best access to Handies. The road to Handies isn't bad except for a couple of miles of a shelf road, which isn't too bad and is wide enough in places that two vehicles can squeeze through in case you run into traffic coming the other way. There are some pretty good places to stay in Lake City whether you are wanting to tent camp or stay in a room or cabin. Handies is a great one also, my kids and I ascended from Grizzly Gulch so we could enjoy the really cool view of Handies (it's amazing) and we descended via American Basin so we could stop by Sloan Lake and take in the great views on that side of the peak. We then just hiked around on the road from American Basin back to Grizzly Gulch/Silver Creek TH....added a couple of easy, flat miles of road hiking and was totally worth the extra time.

I've stayed at two places in Lake City...Alpine Village, which is a set of rustic, but clean little cabins that are just a short walk north of the main part of town, I highly recommend this place. I've also tent camped at Elkhorn RV resort, which is another great place just a few blocks from the main part of town....great people, good, clean facilities. If you are bringing an RV or trailer, this would be a good place.