Tuttle Mountain – 13,208 and Houghton Mountain – 13,059

RT Length: 9.63 miles

Elevation Gain: 2935’

I parked at the Animas Forks Historic Site near Silverton.  A couple of notes:  the 4WD road in is 4WD, and it’s crowded!  The site however, is pretty cool.  Lots of stuff to see here, and you can go inside the structures (even the 2 story ones). 

There are plenty of spaces to park.  I chose one, and was on the trail at 5:45am, after it had stopped raining. 

I followed the 4WD road that started to the northwest of the historic site, leading towards California Gulch

I passed a couple of mines in the dark.  Apparently, the crows weren’t happy I was there.  Nothing spooky about this at all.

Crows:

I followed this road east for 1.25 miles, to the Placer Gulch/California Gulch junction, and continued straight towards California Gulch

I continued following this trail through California Gulch for a total of 4 miles, all the way to California Pass.  This was an easy-to-follow 4WD dirt road, that passed a few abandoned mines.

At California Pass, I left the road and followed game trails north along the ridge.  This is a class 2 ridge, and easy to follow

Also, I heard coyotes

I could also see both peaks from here, Tuttle and Houghton

Here are some pictures of that class 2 ridge and the game trails

About halfway across the ridge I took a game trail to go straight towards the peak

Then I ascended this class 2 ridge to the north, leading to a false summit

It was a quick hike to the actual summit

I summited Tuttle Mountain at 8:15am

Tuttle Mountain:

Looking northeast, I could see Houghton Mountain.  Before descending to the saddle, I’d go over this hump, then southeast for a bit to avoid some rock outcroppings. 

Here’s my route down to the Tuttle/Houghton saddle, first heading southeast to avoid the rocks

Then crossing northeast towards the saddle, and up the ridge to the summit.  This is my overall route to the summit of Houghton.  If you like cool rocks, plan to spend a lot of time in the area circled in red.

These are the rocks from Tuttle I was trying to avoid, and the route I took down

Now to head over to Houghton.  This was mostly a class 2 ridge hike through rocky, rolling tundra, littered with a bunch of mines.  It was also choose your own adventure on a wide ridge.  I was aiming for where the orange arrow is pointing.

Oh, and here is a picture of one of those cool rocks I was talking about

For the rest of the hike to the summit of Houghton, there are slight game trails to follow through both the tundra and eventually scree.  I just kept heading northeast, staying to the ridge

Once you see the change from tundra to rocks, notice the top of this gully.  It will be the decent route.

The last push to the summit was rocky, but there were game trails to easily follow

I summited Houghton Mountain at 10am

Houghton Mountain:

Now to head back down.  I retreated the same last rocky section southwest

Then turned left, and descended a gully to the south.  This is an easy, tundra filled gully, just be careful, as there are scree rocks here that have tumbled from above and are loose on the grass (but no scree)

To make this easier, I aimed for the California Gulch/Placer Gulch junction, since it was easy to see (circled in red). 

From the junction, here’s the route I took down from Houghton Mountain

At the junction I turned left, and followed the road east back to Animas Forks

I made it back to my truck at 11am, making this a 9.63mile hike with 2935’ of elevation gain in 5 hours 15 minutes. 

On to the next trailhead!