A couple weeks after our Sunlight Basin pack-in, Steve and I headed back down to the Weminuche to try for a few more peaks at the tail end of summer. The destination this time around was Stormy Gulch via Trinity Creek. From there we ended up hitting Peaks Two and Three to the northeast of Vestal Basin, and Peak Eight to the west of Silex Lake. Keep Reading…
In mid-August Steve and I packed into the Weminuche and spent three nights camped on the shore of Sunlight Lake to the northeast of Sunlight Peak. Of course the main focus was to climb the 13ers surrounding the basin, but we were equally enamored with the idea of simply visiting this particular place given the lore around it.
Ever since my first pack-ins to the Weminuche I’d always held Sunlight Basin as this sort of mythical, rarely visited place. For many years it had a reputation of being so difficult to get to, people would look for alternate ways to hit the peaks in the area so as to avoid Sunlight Creek. Before his passing, John Fielder called it his favorite place in Colorado, and I’ve heard that same sentiment echoed by others who have made the trek in there. Needless to say, it had long been on the bucket list. Indeed, to get there is no easy task. While there are a few different ways to do it, Steve and I ultimately chose to head in from the Vallecito Reservoir, north to the Sunlight Creek confluence and up to Sunlight Lake from there. Keep Reading….
I reached the trailhead from Big Pine in early afternoon, stowed my extra food in one of the bear boxes, and made the hike on the trail from the backpacker lot. This trail is more scenic than hiking the road, but I can’t think that it is necessarily any faster, as you have to gain maybe a couple hundred feet as the path winds across the hillside, only to drop it all to reach the creek, where the trail splits. On my way out, I took the road. Read more…
I felt the urge to write this trip report for two reasons. First, because the southwest ridge up Ellingwood is a very cool route. But we don’t really have any documentation of it on the site. So, this felt like a good chance to highlight its many enticing features. And second, because the Lake Como road is NOT a cool route. And in spite of how much documentation exists in the world about how much it sucks, I still feel the need to remind everyone of what a nightmare that road still is.