Essence: Climb a ranked summit and two named prominences while circumnavigating Picayune Gulch. ("Picayne Gulch" on the Handies Peak quad.) The basin has a maze of historic mining roads favored by the 4WD crowd. Roughly half of the hike utilizes these tracks so you have to put up with vehicle traffic, cobbles, and steep, slick surfaces. But it's worth it, as you will see. Walk the rim where tundra is infinite and the alpine is luminous. Unruly, iridescent color rises up from the earth and envelops the face of the sky. The entirety of the horizon is busy with mountains, distinct and familiar, rippling into the blue distance. The hike is on land administered by the Bureau of Land Management. Public land is riddled with mining claims. There are no active mines but some claims have been purchased and private structures built. Respect no trespassing signs. LiDAR has adjusted the height of all three mountains. Eureka Mountain, 12,938', rise 132 feet; Peak 13,078', rise 388 feet; Treasure Mountain, 12,917', rise 242 feet.
Travel: In Silverton, drive northeast on Greene Street, the main drag,
to the far end of town. Make a soft
right onto San Juan CR 2 and measure distance from there. Pavement ends at 1.8 miles. The graded, gravel road crosses to the east side of the Animas River at 3.7 miles. At 7.6 miles the road crosses back to the west side of the river. It degenerates
to a slow, rocky surface. 4WD with good clearance and sturdy tires are recommended for the narrow road. At 10.3 miles, park on the left in a pullout at the start of the signed Picayune Gulch Road. If you cross the bridge over the Animas River for a third time, you've gone too far. Allow 1:30 from Durango. If you'd like to drive more and hike less, park in Placer Gulch at the Gold Prince Mine. For directions see the
Hanson Peak post.
Distance and Elevation Gain: 9.4 miles; 3,000 feet. Your stats will differ depending on time spent on and off the roads.
Total Time: 4:30 to 6:30
Difficulty: 4WD tracks, off-trail; navigation moderate; Class 2+ with mild exposure on Peak 13,075'
Map: Handies Peak, Colorado 7.5' USGS Quad
Date Hiked: September 5, 2026
Quote: Color provokes a psychic vibration. Color hides a power still unknown but real, which acts on every part of the human body. Wassily Kandinsky
Two figures on a black ball (Peak 13,075') sliced diagonally by a golden field stand out against cloud luster in a Colorado-blue sky. (Thomas Holt Ward, photo)
Route: This hike runs clockwise. From the parking pullout on CR 2, hike south on Picayune Gulch Road (CR 9). The circuit begins at the junction with CR 99. Bear southwest on CR 99. Leave the road at about 11,600 feet and hike off-trail on the ridge. Or, stay on the road (blue-line route) to a five-way junction and transfer onto Eureka Mountain Road. At road's end, swing west to Eureka Mountain. Climb northwest to Peak 13,075'. Stay on the rim as it goes over Treasure Mountain. Hike onto a massive flat. At Point 12,785' turn east and then southeast back to Picayune Gulch Road. Follow it back to CR 2.
There are several magnificent hikes that begin near this parking area on the Animas River, elevation 10,740 feet. The prominences on this circuit are humble relative to their sky-high brethren on the east side of the river. There's the Grouse Gulch approach to Handies Peak. Or, drive up Burns Gulch to claim Niagara Peak, Jones Mountain, and American Peak. A word about the dual name confusion. "Picayne" is on the map and elsewhere but everyone I know, including locals, calls it "Picayune."
CR 9 heads south on a narrow shelf confined by a vertical wall of black andesite.
Over the years friends cautioned against driving up the road--too technical, scary-narrow, rough. Therefore, our plan was to walk it. We arrived on Labor Day weekend only to find the road closed to vehicle traffic for an overhaul. We paused to admire a 1975 Ford 250 flatbed. Up the road apiece we found Bumper in a backhoe widening the shelf by pushing the cliff back with a jackhammer. Consequently, we didn't encounter any vehicles for most of the day.
Eureka Mountain
The road swings west and hangs above the entrenched runout from the basin. At 0.5 mile, 11,040 feet, Picayune Gulch Road (CR 9) branches right and signed CR 99 is straight ahead. To do the hike clockwise as described segue onto CR 99.
Cross the perennial stream draining the gulch at 0.7 mile. CR 99 wasn't terribly inspiring at this elevation primarily because the forest was succumbing to beetle kill. The blue spruce were hanging in there but the firs were decimated. The subalpine roads acted as a utilitarian gateway for this hike. It was late in the flower season but there were some diehards--yarrow, pearly everlasting, heart leaf arnica, mountain gold. Fireweed had already blown off most of its cotton-white seedheads. We saw only a few deer but a significant herd had left tracks.
At 1.5 miles, 11,560 feet, we left CR 99 and got on the ridge. It wasn't practical, more of a ridge purist thing. We kept intersecting and recrossing CR 99.
We passed by mine tailings.
You can't walk ten feet in this basin without stumbling on historic mining relics. Above the tailings pile we saw the first of several blocked adits. The silver disk was placed in 2016.
If you stay on the road, at 11,840 feet you will come to a five-way junction with CR 99 and Eureka Mtn Road. Leave CR 99 and go straight on Eureka Mountain Road. This image looks down on that intersection (image-left) from Treasure Mountain. CR 99 is the main road coming up through Picayune Gulch. Eureka Mountain Road can be seen starting its ascent on the southeast rim. You can just make out the roof of the "Castle," a private inholding.
We mounted a very steep pitch which you can avoid by staying on the road. Besides, the ridgetop is too close to the Castle so we got back on the road. Below, Eureka Mountain Road is winding up onto the ridge. In fact, you can see the road just left of the ridgetop in this image.
By 12,000 feet there were an abundance of free-range opportunities on or adjacent to the rim. Above tree limit, I often reflect on Ann Zwinger's description of the alpine in her treatise,
Land Above The Trees. "The alpine tundra is a land of contrast and incredible intensity, where the sky is the size of forever and the flowers the size of a millisecond. The only objects larger than small are boulders."
As always, the excitement factor is accentuated adjacent to the edge.
Looking into Picayune Gulch, CR 99 is down in the heart of the basin and CR 9 is climbing to the rim. Treasure Mountain is image-center.
The road riding along the rim is on a journey to wonderment.
We were taken by surprise when the track abruptly ended at 12,680 feet, 2.8 miles into our hike. Elation!
We were pleased to be rid of the road, on a strong game trail, in a world that felt all the more natural.
The rough-hewn mass in the background is the southeast ridge of Eureka Mountain. It climbs about 100 feet from the saddle to Point 12,896', goes bumpety-bump over to Point 12,634' and then plunges in a heartbeat to the Animas River.
LiDAR raised the elevation of Eureka Mountain by nine feet but even so, it appears broader than it is tall with a rise of just 132 feet from its shared saddle with Peak 13,075'.
The lumbering broad roller sports a picturesque summit cairn.
The views from the enormous spread are virtually limitless. We were intimately familiar with all the surrounding mountains but it was still difficult to parse the peaks from an entirely new perspective. Great fun! Shown in the wedge below are Dome and Tower mountains, Storm and Proposal peaks, and Emery Peak with the clawed out north face. (Most of the mountains named in this post are on Earthline. Check out the San Juan Mountains Index.)
In this image, follow the ridge northwest to Peak 13,075'. Point 13,270' is horizon-left. Then comes a triplet we approached from Placer Gulch: Hanson and Hurricane peaks, and California Mountain. (THW, photo)
Picayune Gulch is within the San Juan Volcanic field. The peaks rimming the basin are composed of Picayune Andesite, part of the
Picayune Formation. Andesite is associated with explosive volcanic eruptions and is found in volcanic arcs throughout the world. The Picayune Formation was formed by a cluster of central volcanoes that erupted 35 to 30 million years ago. The red streaks and curved shapes in the andesite blocks on the peak cairn (and seen throughout the hike) are Liesegang bands. They form when iron-rich groundwater migrates through permeable pathways in rock. I've seen this phenomenon over and again in sandstone formations. This was the first time it caught my eye in volcanics.
Peak 13,075'
The only ranked summit on the Picayune rim is 0.9 mile northwest of Eureka Mountain. Having hiked in solitude thus far, we were surprised to see two people mounting the northeast ridge. They tagged the top and quickly descended. Meanwhile, we glided up the gray sphere shown below.
Can we summit via the south ridge? It wasn't a sure thing. Meanwhile, clouds gathered, jets of sunlight broke through, and colors were autumn psychedelic. (THW, photo)
Bright orange lichen capped a string of knobs on the southeast ridge.
With some mountains you have to get up close and touch the rock before you know whether you can safely climb. As we drew closer to Peak 13,075' it was clear our passage was assured. It turned out to be the most fun we had on the rim.
Take some big steps on the short Class 2+ scramble.
The ridge is thin spanning over to the false summit.
I looked back at the perfect moment to see Eureka Mountain and the upper basin shimmering in shades of gold velvet. On the southern horizon are Jones Mountain, Niagara Peak, North Crown, and even the Rio Grande Pyramid.
(THW, photo)
The true summit is on the next knob.
Throw in some scrambling and I feel like I'm on a real mountain. Peak 13,075' has a teeny tiny crest with literally no place to sit amongst the sharp and pointy rocks. This image looks down on the rotary at the head of Picayune Gulch Road.
It was a simple downclimb. (THW, photo)
We soon got cliffed out on the north ridge so we backed up and ambled northeast down to the Picayune Gulch Road. While you're hanging out on the cliff edge check out the misshapen (and compelling!) mountains far away in the north: Coxcomb, Wetterhorn, Matterhorn, and Uncompahgre peaks.
This image was shot from the Picayune Gulch Road looking back at Peak 13,075'.
Treasure Mountain
The span from Peak 13,075' to Treasure Mountain is 0.8 mile. We left the road at the saddle, 12,675 feet (LiDAR). From there the gain to the top is 242 feet. There's nothing short of charming about this prominence. It was an easy lift to the stone cap encircling the summit. (THW, photo)
A simple staircase powered us to the top of the rocky knob. Welcome to one of the many mountains so named in Colorado. The Handies topo marks the summit on the next minor bump to the northeast, 12,820 feet. The stony knob is indisputably the highpoint at 12,917 feet.
Lists of John associates the name of this unranked prominence with the highpoint.
The comfortable summit offers the opportunity to take a moment and study the goings on in Placer Gulch to the northwest. By now the OHV community is out cruising. A dozen vehicles were parked at the Silver Queen Mine (image-bottom-center). Tucked at the base of Hanson Peak is the Gold Prince Mine.
Return to parking
To complete the circumnavigation, our plan was to walk northeast to Point 12,783' and then take a ridge southeast over Point 11,980', delivering us back to the junction of Picayune Gulch Road and CR 99. We dropped off Treasure Mountain aiming for the splayed out flat.
Descending Treasure was super friendly.
If your screen is big enough you'll be able to pick out two bow hunters in blaze orange on the flat in front of
Animas Forks Mountain (Peak 13,722'). I'm pointing it out because one of our favorite all-time hikes entails crossing a catwalk from Peak 13,722' to Point 13,708', then bearing east to Wood Mountain. Cinnamon Pass Road can be seen climbing up through the basin. Cinnamon Mountain is image-right.
We crested Point 12,783' to have a look around and discovered an inholding on our planned path to Point 11,980'. Descending we passed blocks of quartz and another adit with shiny black andesite spilling out over the ground.
(THW, photo)
The No Trespassing sign made it clear we needed to find an alternative route back to the road. We were bummed. (THW, photo)
We could have simply hopped on the road but it was busy with Labor Day four wheelers. Instead, we cut down an open slope, essentially short-cutting a major switchback, shown. The image below was shot from the south rim of the basin.
We looked down on the Treasure Mountain mine, mill, and boarding house.
Picayune Gulch Road lived up to its steep and slick reputation.
This closing image was snapped from Treasure Mountain looking across to Peak 13,075'. The season is slowing, flowers have gone to seed, the world withdraws as winter approaches. And yet, under this September sky, the tundra is lit from within. The grasses are gold, moss campion turned from brilliant pink to bronze, and the leaves of ubiquitous alpine avens are a rusty carmine. The colorful florescence is empowering. (THW, photo)
