July 17, 2025

By Tim Briese

Raspberry Mountain: 5.0 miles, 1400’ elevation gain, 2:30 roundtrip time

I met Brian in Divide and we drove down Highway 67 for a few miles and turned left onto FR 383 and followed it past the Rocky Mountain Mennonite Camp to the spacious trailhead parking area for Raspberry Mountain. The trail was wide and well used.

brian on the trail

the well marked trail

There was a fun short scramble on boulders to the summit but a loud thunderclap cut our stay there to mere seconds.

scrambling to the summit

a view from the summit. pikes peak is on the left and sentinel point is to the right.

We hiked back in the rain most of the way.

UN 10966: 3.3 miles, 1000’ elevation gain, 3:15 roundtrip time

Brian and I drove further up FR 383 to the large parking area for the Crags Trailhead. This trailhead serves as a departure point for both the Crags Trail, where we were heading, and for the Devil’s Playground route to Pikes Peak, so it sees a lot of hikers. We headed up the trail and passed the turnoff to Pikes Peak and continued on the scenic Crags Trail until we reached a point that looked acceptable to begin our bushwhack ascent to the northwest up to UN 10966.

on the scenic crags trail

the climb up to 10966 looked simple enough from down here

The climb up to the ridge was steep but straightforward, and we looked forward to a simple stroll along the ridge to the summit, but instead found a slow-going tumble of huge boulders. We got cliffed out at a drop-off and had to drop to the left side of the ridge and continued through a lot of deadfall but eventually made our way to the scenic summit.

brian on the summit

sentinel point, to the right, was one of our objectives tomorrow

The hour was getting late so we didn’t stay long and decided to save time by descending off the ridge down a steep gully on a direct line back down to the Crags Trail.

brian coming down through the rocks

This descent route worked out well and we hiked briskly back to the trailhead.