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Today's outing took us to Hahn's Peak, a prominent summit north of Steamboat Springs that is easily recognized from many vantage points. With a trail leading its lookout-crowned summit, it is hugely popular, especially on the weekends. The regular TH is reachable by high-clearance vehicles, but the higher TH and other nearby summits we visited afterwards required 4WD. Most of these were fairly short outings, leaving us with almost as much Jeeping as we had hiking.

Hahns Peak

There were already several vehicles in the 2WD trailhead when we arrived there around 7a, but we were happy to take advantage of the Jeep's capabilities and shave off another mile by driving up to the 4WD spot. There is only room for a few vehicles here, but luckily it doesn't see much use - ours was the only vehicle to use it this morning. The trail follows the Jeep road for that first mile, then becomes a single track at the 4WD parking. The trail was in excellent shape, no downfall on its 1.5mi distance. It climbs the northwest side of the mountain, initially through forest but with views opening up as it reaches the edge of the West Face. The old Royal Flush Mine can be seen below on the west side, old roads zigzagging up its face. The trail passes by a dilapidated cabin before climbing above treeline. The last half mile climbs up through talus with your pick of various trail thread segments in places. I'd seen reports describing this as a scramble, but it's not - the trail continues through all of it. There is almost no vegetation about the rounded, open summit, leaving far-reaching views (save for haze and smoke, some of which we had today), including a nice one of Steamboat Lake to the southwest, Sand Mtn in the background. The lookout at the summit is pretty cool, having been restored several times. There is no caretaker on duty, but the sparse cabin is open for inspection. We took some time at the summit to take it all in before heading back down. We spent about an hour and a half on the hike.

Beryl Mountain

These next three summits are all minor, found off the south slopes of Hahns Peak. We returned to FR490 and got on a series of rough 4WD roads that require more serious driving. We parked off FR411 and took a few minutes to hike to the top of Beryl Mtn on an old road. Open views from the summit, Hahns Peak to the north and Anderson Mtn to the south.

Anderson Mountain

Less than half a mile south of Beryl, Anderson takes a bit more effort. The forest roads around the peak shown on the topo map are no longer driveable with massive downfall blocking them. We parked at the saddle with Beryl Mtn and clambered over the downfall and up the north slopes to reach the summit in about 10min. With trees atop this one, only partial views, including a good one of Steamboat Lake to the southwest.

Little Mountain

This one takes a bit more effort still. The topo map shows a road going up the North Ridge to the summit. This road still exists, though no longer driveable. The map shows it can be reached from the north (we were unable to locate the old junction for that one) or from the east. Coming from Anderson Mtn, we got only as far as a creek crossing before finding the road blocked by downfall. It would take us about 35min to make our way up the mountain on foot, going over downfall in various places along the old roadway. There is a clearing at the summit with views looking south, but little else.

Peak 9,588ft

This summit is found on the west side of Hahns Peak, with more than 500ft of prominence. It appears to be located on USFS lands, but one must drive through a private rural community to reach it. Zsuzsiyama Ln is the dirt road servicing the isolated cabins. We drove past the last driveway, finding the road blocked by downfall. We parked here and walked up the remaining stretch of road to a saddle. We found that someone had built a nice trail from the saddle going the last 800ft to the summit. Oddly, there was no view found at the summit, no lawn chairs, no register, no flag. Anyway, the trail saved us some minor bushwhacking. We spent about 25min on the roundtrip effort.

Iron Mountain

Iron Mtn is about 4mi northwest of Hahns Peak. We drove back out to the pavement, then northwest on FR488. We took this to a saddle northwest of Iron Mtn where we found FR484-1B gated and no longer driveable. This would leave us with about a mile each way to the summit, about half on the old road, half cross-country. Neither had any real difficulties, taking us about half an hour to reach the open summit, mostly covered in talus. There is a nice view of Hahns Peak from the top. We found a register left by Mike Garratt in 2004, fairly busy with entries. It was 1:15p by this time, with clouds gathering overhead - it seemed like a good time to call it a day.

Peak 7,825ft

Only not quite. On our way back to Steamboat, Eric wanted to give Ingrid and Christian a chance to claim Peak 7,825ft, a peak Eric and I had done a few days earlier. It is found south of Steamboat, just off US40. We had the route dialed on this one, so it was an easy drive to the summit where a water tank stands, then a 1-minute hike to the highpoint and back. Really just a stat-padder.

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