Trip report
Jul 18, 2026 — The Raggeds Wilderness encompasses a series of serrated ridges dominated by Chair Mountain, as well as four 12ers of note. The wilderness also includes Marcellina Mountain, Mount Owen and Treasure/Treasury, but those have a very different aesthetic from the cluster of peaks we hiked today in the primary area known as “The Raggeds”, or the “Raggeds Massif”. We only managed to bag three of the four peaks we came for today, thanks to a storm that had other plans, but it was a gorgeous day out in a gloriously remote nook of Colorado. These included Ragged Mountain, Peak 12520, and Peak 12557, but excluded Ragged Peak. There are some ruts in the approach road, which starts off Kebler Pass Road (38.9501514, -107.2926434), but my Crossover SUV had no issues.
We set out along the Raggeds Trail #820 for about a mile of dusty, cowpie-strewn doubletrack. The Raggeds Trail eventually turns to singletrack another 5 miles to the north, but that wasn’t our route today. Instead we hung a right onto the less-traveled Spud Pass Trail #824, except the sign at the junction called it the Deep Creek Trail, which was confusing since the USFS website insists it’s the Spud Pass Trail. Whatever its name, it’s a bit overgrown and could use a little love.
After a couple of mellow miles of forest walking, with the occasional meadow giving us a view toward the Raggeds ahead, the trail got more serious and started climbing on tight switchbacks. At the top we popped out above Deep Creek, which we could hear grumbling below us. At 10,600′ the Spud Pass Trail bent west toward Deep Creek Lake (that’s what the USFS website calls it, but no map seems to name it at all) at the base of Ragged Peak, the one peak we’d sadly strike out on today. We went northeast instead off-trail. Maps seem to note an unnamed trail that continues up here, but we didn’t locate it until a bit below reaching the south ridge of our first peak.
A grassy slope and a bit of talus delivered us to Ragged Mountain. From there we dropped down the west ridge toward Peak 12520, the rim serving some colorful cliffs along the way, but was otherwise just an easy descent slope. The next two peaks got a bit more tedious since they were covered in wide, flat talus flakes. Fortunately the talus was solid enough that it didn’t slow us down much. The slope angle mellowed a bit before reaching Peak 12520, but the talus did not.
We descended more talus toward the saddle between the two unnamed 12ers, where the north face of Peak 12557 had us in awe for a bit. The Class 2 scramble up to 12557 steepened, and toward the summit the rock became a bit more loose and hazardous. Rather than charging straight up the steepest part, we drifted slightly left, where the grade eased off and things felt less concerning. Chair Mountain loomed in the distance, and just for kicks we scoped out the ridgeline between us and Ragged Peak. One look at the knife-edge was all it took to know a traverse to the peak was absolutely, positively not happening.
From the saddle between the two unnamed 12ers, we dropped onto a massive talus-covered slope. A few stretches had bigger boulders that made for less tedious hiking, but it was still 1200 feet of talus to grind down before reaching the Deep Creek basin below. Once we finally made it down, we treated ourselves to a quick detour to an unnamed lake on the way out as a little consolation prize for skipping Ragged Peak.