Tenderfoot Lodge
	Hiking Tips

    Summiting Quandary Peak

to Sawatch Range
to Mosquito Range
to Continental Divide
Quandary summit

At 14,265 feet in elevation, Quandary Peak ranks twelfth among the Rockies of Colorado. From the summit, at least 14 of the other official Fourteeners - and half of the tallest ten - are visible. The panorama is beyond your standard expectation.

Still, Quandary is one of the easiest of the Fourteener to "summit". Dogs do it. Whole families make it an outing. But it is a strenuous hike. The summit is about 3,300 vertical feet and 3 horizontal miles from the tralhead. The elevation is largely through the talus slope.
 
 
 

up Quandary

"Spare a little water?"

sandstone slabs at 14,000'

McCullough Gulch cirque

The Forest Service (and its many volunteers) have recently built a new trailhead and a new lower section to the trail. This is different from any of the variations described by Guilliland. The trailhead parking is now just in from the beginning of CR 851. Exit CO 9 at a switchback approaching Hoosier Pass 8 mi. south of Breckenridge onto the Blue Lakes Rd (CR 850). CR 851 (McCullough Gulch Rd) is immediately on the right. The new trail is well marked through the old Monte Cristo mining area.

©2005