CARBONATE HILL (10,928’)

August 21, 2019

By Tim Briese

2.6 miles, 700’ elevation gain, 1:30 roundtrip time

Brian and I drove from Gunnison up to Taylor Reservoir and turned right onto a nice dirt road that we followed 8 miles to the quaint little village of Tincup, which I had never visited before.

tincup, viewed from the south looking north

note the old antique gas pump to the right of the store

We took Road 765, the Cumberland Pass Road, south out of town for a couple of miles. At this point Carbonate Hill was directly above the road to the west but access was restricted by a long stretch of private property along the road marked with ominous no trespassing signs. We turned around and backtracked up the road a little over half a mile and turned left onto Road 764, the Slaughterhouse Gulch Road. We drove down a hill about 100 yards and parked at a sharp curve.

the beginning of slaughterhouse gulch road.  we parked at the curve at the bottom of the hill.

we hiked up the atv track visible in front of my white tundra

Convinced that we were now on public land, we walked south on an old ATV track along the west side of a little creek for about half a mile until we reached a fence across the track with a no trespassing sign guarding the land beyond. At this point we left the track and bushwhacked steeply uphill to the west into the national forest. Presently we reached an old mine road that we conveniently followed as it switchbacked up to the ridge just north of the summit. 

this old mine road saved us some steep bushwhacking

From the end of the road we bushwhacked a short distance south to the highest point. We reached the top at 915, about 40 minutes after we left the vehicles. Views were limited in the dense woods but a few high peaks could be seen in the distance to the south.

brian on top of carbonate hill

view to the south to the vicinity of cumberland pass

After 15 minutes we left and hiked back down. I inadvertently disturbed a nest of bees on the bushwhack down the and took a sharp sting on my leg, the first time that had happened to me in a long time. This was a nice little climb to finish up my adventures with Brian this week.