Back in early April, I noticed my peak count was approaching 1000. This felt like a number worthy of celebration. When I mentioned it to my hiking partners, they agreed and wanted to participate. So we set a date for May 15th.

The tough part of setting a date out that far ahead of time was it meant I had to execute and be at 999 by the 15th! So many things can come up with work, family, weather, access, not wanting to get up on a Saturday morning to hike, etc. that I was worried it might be tough to get there. However, I kept up my end of the bargain and the count was right when it needed to be.

The other piece was finding a suitable peak for number 1000. I dug into all kinds of names and elevations and locations. At one point we were going to do the highpoint of New Mexico. Eventually we decided to keep it simple and do a peak close to home. In fact, we literally picked the 1000th peak 10 minutes before we started hiking (we had numerous options for 13ers in the area and picked the one with the least amount of snow).

Cinnamon Mountain was to be my 1000th distinct peak. I had seen Facebook posts claiming that the road to Cinnamon Pass (12,640’) was plowed. A little strange they plow these roads each spring, but I’ll take it! So we hiked up the road, which tunneled through the snow at times. This got us to within 700 feet of the summit. We figured even if that 700 feet was miserable snow, no biggie, we will be up and down within an hour or so and back on the dirt!

The snow actually turned out pretty good and soon we were on the mostly dry, wind-blown summit ridge with 300 feet to go.

Soon I was standing on top of my 1000th peak with great San Juan mountain views in all directions. As we snapped photos and celebrated, we noticed it was starting to snow in the Grenadiers not far away. So any plans of a second or third peak were put to rest and we decided to get moving off the mountain.

We descended, glissaded and slid our way down off the ridge and out of the wind. Once close enough to the road to make a dash should the storm kick-up, we stopped for some lunch and a beer. Then we finished the hike and drove to Silverton, you know, for another beer!

Great day in the mountains with great friends and a supportive wife (she made me the cool sign in the pictures)!

From Silverton, take Colorado Road 2 towards Animas Forks. After the Eureka site, the road gets a bit rocky, although any vehicle with good tires and a bit of clearance should be fine.

We drove the road up to Animas Forks from Silverton. Where the road branched to Engineer Pass and Cinnamon Pass, we started walking to Cinnamon Pass.

From Cinnamon Pass, we made our way to the low point in the saddle just east of the peak. Then hiked up to the summit. It appears there is a decent trail in the rocks, though covered by snow for our ascent.