On a breezy Monday morning, I set out for Loveland Pass for another adventure. By the time I got there, the actual pass itself was closed as they were repaving the road. So I chose to be more adventurous and park further down the road and bushwhack up towards the ridge.
Here’s some more info about my hike:
- Date: August 12th, 2019
- Miles Hiked: 6.3 Miles
- Route: Cupid and Grizzly Peak via Loveland Pass
Getting There
Loveland Pass is easily accessible from Interstate 70 and gets a lot of traffic, including Hazmat vehicles that use the pass throughout the year as they are prohibited from going through the Eisenhower Tunnel.
The Route
From the start, I knew that getting up to the ridge line was going to be very tiring. And it took a lot of work that morning . Within 10 minutes or so, my pants were completely soaked trying to work my way through the willow bushes. Luckily, I dried off within an hour because the wind at the top of the ridge was absolutely miserable.

Once I crossed a small creek, I was finally out of the willows and more than halfway to the top of the ridge.


After taking a quick break, I reached the trail that branches off of the Mount Sniktau trail towards Cupid Peak. This part was pretty straight forward but I was amazed at how tiny Route 6 looks as it goes over Loveland Pass.


Upon reaching the trail, I didn’t stop until I reached the summit of Cupid Peak.
Cupid Peak
Standing at 13,117 feet, the views atop Cupid Peak are simply astounding. Even more so on a beautiful August morning. With the wind howling, I stopped to take in the views and some pictures too.



Now it was time to continue the journey up to the summit of Grizzly Peak. But before that, something weird happened. As I was hiking, I began to hear two people laugh but there was not a soul anywhere to be found. After about 20 minutes or so, I finally encountered two people who were further down the trail.
I did question my sanity in that brief span of time as I had worked all night before I set out on this hike. Nonetheless, I kept hiking further up the trail towards Grizzly Peak with what felt like a constant 30 mile per hour wind somewhat slowing me down.

Aside from the wind, it was turning out to be a spectacular day. Amazingly, no thunderstorms formed nearby either.




Grizzly Peak
At an elevation of 13,427 feet, the views atop Grizzly Peak are pretty unique in that you can see the two nearby 14ers of Torreys Peak and Grays Peak. While I was sitting at the rock shelter, I could see numerous people hiking up to the summit of those mountains. I was just happy to have the summit of Grizzly Peak all to myself that morning.





Before heading back down towards my car, I was lucky to find some mountain goat fur only a short distance from the summit. Definitely was not expecting that.
The Return Trip
Given how tired I was at that point, I’m pretty glad that it was an uneventful hike back down to my car.





Overall, this turned out to be a great hike on a perfect summer day. I’m glad I took advantage of the great weather to get out and summit a couple of 13ers that I can now add to my growing list of mountains that I have reached the summit of.