Hike Pacific Peak via South Ridge, Atlantic Peak, Fletcher Peak White River National Forest, CO

Directions

Route Map

Download GPX

Pacific Peak via South Ridge, Atlantic Peak, Fletcher Peak GPX Track

I need to offset my substantial website costs somehow! You can download a hike/drive GPX to assist you here. Before sharing my GPX tracks with others, please remember my site is otherwise a free resource.

Add to Cart

View Cart

You can park at the standard McCullough Gulch Trail, but I parked further down because I car camped there. The McCullough Gulch Trailhead is at the spot the gravel road forks. Going left is the start of that trail and is still a road, but closed to vehicles.

Head up a grassy bowl past an old mine from the bend in the road, where I parked my car. Once out of the bowl, follow a fun Class 2/3 ridgeline with a mini knife-edge until a route off the ridge to the summit of Pacific Peak becomes visible and obvious. From the Pacific Peak summit, continue along its south ridge to Atlantic Peak (Class 2). From here, decide if you want to commit to Fletcher Peak's Class 4 ridge, which can easily be made into Class 5 if you're into that sort of craziness. If you decide the weather is going to hold out (it looked like it would for me, but oops), the going is loose and fun until you get to a pinnacle that has no easy way around it. From here, I headed to the east off the ridge for a hundred feet before scoping out a gully to return to the ridge, just past the Class 5 pinnacle. After gaining the ridge again with a Class 4 move or two, the ridge stays pretty consistently Class 3+/4 until you get past the final pinnacle and you can see the Class 2 summit ridge, a slope covered in terrible scree that eventually turns into a fun talus scramble. From Fletcher Peak's summit, head down its southeast ridge toward the lowest spot before the ridge starts to gain elevation again toward Quandary Peak. Though you could do Quandary Peak via its West Ridge, I already had, so I found a terrible dirty Class 2 gully that leads into McCullough Gulch. I scoped better gullies, but none seemed to look quite as reasonable. Once in the Gulch, I made a few detours to look at all the lakes before following a ridge down the center that avoided all of the swamps completely. At the end of this ridge, a nice grassy Class 2 slope leads down to the official McCullough Gulch Trail, which is pleasant but fairly crowded.

PEAKS ON HIKE
Elevation (ft) / Prominence (ft)

Peaks on hike

Elevation

Prominence

Pacific Peak

13950 ft

550 rise

Atlantic Peak

13841 ft

401 rise

Fletcher Mountain

13951 ft

591 rise

Hire me or show me some love!

Hire/refer me as a web developer or send me a few bucks if you find my site useful. I'm not sponsored, so all fees are out-of-pocket and my time preparing trip reports is unpaid. I really appreciate it!

Head up the grassy slopes from your car.

Nearing the top of the grassy slopes.

Looking back after gaining the ridge.

Continuing along the ridge, Quandary Peak on the left.

Left to right: Quandary, Fletcher, Atlantic, Pacific is hidden at the end of my current ridge.

Fletcher left, Atlantic middle, Pacific right.

Looking back along the ridge.

Mini knife-edge section.

Pacific Peak on the right.

Looking back, McCullough Gulch on the right.

Pacific Peak ahead.

Looking back along the ridge from Pacific Peak summit, Quandary Peak on the right.

Pacific Peak summit view looking north-ish.

Looking toward Atlantic Peak (right). Follow this ridge.

Pacific-Atlantic saddle.

Summit of Atlantic Peak looking back toward Pacific Peak.

Summit of Atlantic Peak looking toward Fletcher Mountain. Those clouds look bad... oh well!

View east toward McCullough Gulch.

Class 2/3 begins.

That big tower ahead is Class 5. No thanks. I went to the left, leaving the ridge.

After leaving the ridge, just below the hard stuff. Quandary in the background.

Heading back up onto the ridge after avoiding the scary Class 5 stuff.

Class 4 to gain the ridge again.

Looking down my Class 4 gully to gain the ridge.

Continuing on Class 3/4 stuff.

Looking back toward Atlantic Peak.

Rough stuff. I was scared of the clouds and didn't look for a route close to the ridgeline. I went to the bottom right of this photo and found a Class 4 route around this tower, avoiding the potential to get cliffed-out.

Fletcher Mountain in the back. Lots of awful scree and loose rock during this section.

Yeah. Bad clouds coming. Definitely no turning back now.

Last section of Class 2/3 to the summit.

Looking back along the ridgeline from the summit of Fletcher Mountain.

Fletcher Mountain summit view, Drift Peak farther along the ridge. I didn't go that way.

Summit View from Fletcher looking toward Quandary Peak. Now to find a way into McCullough Gulch. Oh boy.

Continuing down the ridge from Fletcher Mountain.

Looking back toward Fletcher Mountain.

Now to find a reasonable gully. I probably should have done some research...

An awful gully, but the only reasonable way down, it seemed. Maybe there was another way? I doubt it. I would not be happy coming up this way.

Bottom of my chosen gully.

Looking up the scree-filled dirty awful gully.

Continuing past some lakes.

Fletcher Mountain on the left, Atlantic Peak on the right.

Continuing down to a humpy ridge in the middle of McCullough Gulch, which I chose to follow to avoid the marshes caused by the lakes. It's just behind this lake.

At the start of the ridge, looking at a gorgeous lake, Fletcher Mountain behind it. Look at that crazy ridge.

Along the ridge.

Looking back toward Fletcher Mountain.

Fletcher left, Atlantic right.

End of the ridge, looking down into the lower section of McCullough Gulch. The official trail ends at that big lake.

Heading north to get down from the ridge.

At the official McCullough Gulch Trail. My ridgeline on the left, Fletcher Mountain peeking out in the distant left.

Pretty trail. Lots of people.

The trail widens into an old road.

Along the forest road to get back to my car. The grassy slope I started on just ahead.

Hire me or show me some love!

Hire/refer me as a web developer or send me a few bucks if you find my site useful. I’m not sponsored, so all fees are out-of-pocket and my time preparing trip reports is unpaid. I really appreciate it!