Handies Peak (14,048 feet) from Grizzly Gulch - 8 miles, 3623 feet elevation gain.

There are two approaches to Handies Peak: from American Basin and from Silver Creek/Grizzly Gulch. American Basin is the shorter route and more traveled, however the road to get there is rougher. The road to Grizzly Gulch is easier, but the hike is longer by about three miles and a thousand feet elevation. This can also mean more solitude on this hike if more people opt for the shorter hike. I'm not sure if it was the route, being midweek, and/or because of Covid, but when we hiked it we didn't see many people at all (including the summit - just one couple and a ranger had hiked up from American Basin). We definitely saw more pikas than people!

This hike gains over 3600 feet in four miles, yet it never felt overly steep until the last set of switchbacks up to the summit. The trail starts in the forest and eventually emerges into meadows and an alpine basin. There were a few spots in the meadows along the river with big boulder fields where we saw a ton of pikas, so much so we renamed these sections Pikastan. We stopped to watch them for awhile - it is always a treat to see these adorable animals.

The trail is a pleasant one and once we made a hard right on the trail to climb to the north ridge, the views started to kick in and the hike went up a notch. There was a long switchback up to the ridge, a traverse along the ridge, a section of steep switchbacks, then an easily graded final bit of the trail to the summit. And the summit - wow. Such amazing 360 views! Handies Peak at 14,048 feet, is right in the middle of the mountains and the views were fantastic. Visible from the summit is the Grenadier Range, Mt. Sneffels Range, La Garita Range, the Needles Mountains, and the Uncompahgre Wilderness. We really loved this hike and spent a long time on the summit soaking it in. It started to get cloudy and we thought we should start our descent. It threatened rain and we had a few stray drops, which encouraged us to make good time back to the truck, but we never got rained on. Steve added on Redcloud and Sunshine and we saw him coming up Handies as we were coming down (of course he caught up to us near the end). It was a great day in the San Juan Mountains - really loved this peak!