My favorite peak in Boulder County (Coulson Gulch, Boulder area, CO)

Looking across St. Vrain Creek towards S. Sheep Mt. from N. Sheep Mt. The ridge on the left is as beautiful as anything on Lumpy Ridge in RMNP.

Trip dates: Feb 01 2020

Caltopo map here: https://caltopo.com/m/UTJ5

I probably have more visits to North Sheep Mountain on the northern bank of St. Vrain Creek than any other peak in Boulder County.  I don't feel this way because of superior summit views and surrounding terrain to other peaks.   The views are great but but do they quite reach those from UN 7828'?  Does it have the same sentimental attachment that Fairview Peak does?  Does it have the alpine spendor of Mt. Alice or North Arapahoe?  Are the scrambles as spectacular as the ridges on the southern slopes of Dinosaur Mt?  The answer to all of these questions is no. 

But it's got little bits of all of them.  It's never alpine but it has the best views of Wild Basin in RMNP.  The scrambles are brief but the rock is solid.  The views of the St. Vrain and the ridges of South Sheep Mt. are starting to occupy my dreams the way Fairview Peak and the Sawtooth did (see opening photo).  Mostly, it's just got a little bit of everything.  It's one of those places I keep coming back to and never regretting (though I regret very, very few of my hikes). 

It's also got enough crappy bushwacking and poorly maintained trails to keep it from ever being popular, so I'm not too worried about telling you about it.

Wild Basin from Johnny Park

This definitely makes the summit register harder to sign. UN 8547'

Looking south towards North Sheep Mt. along the rugged ridge the extends from UN 8547' .

A better view of N. Sheep Mt. a bit later.

This pond lying a bit NE of N. Sheep Mt, proved more difficult to drink from than I had hoped.

The burly S. face of of UN 8547'

Looking north from N. Sheep Mt. towards UN 8547'.

My actual goal had been to scramble up S. Sheep Mt. just on the other side of St. Vrain Creek.  However, I've yet to find a clean descent route off of N. Sheep Mt. to get down to the creek in a reasonable amount of time.  From the summit, descending down the south face looks like fun but it deterioates rapidly.

I've come to view these little failures as a positive.  They make better memories and it keeps your "to do" list from shrinking too fast.  

Looking east from N. Sheep Mt. along St. Vrain Creek.

The start of my descent off S. Sheep Mt. It deteriorates rapidly.

My descent route turned out to be less than ideal. Maybe the orange track would skip the Class 5 scramble but still allow for a more direct route towards South Sheep Mt?

Descending this notch was the best option.

A more scaled back view of the 5th class notch.

I'd been looking forward to filling up on water at the St. Vrain Creek but there was a top layer of ice that was about 2" thick.  Fortunately there was an ample supply of large Boulders around that I could break through it with.  

Cell phones just don't do well in low light. When I reached St. Vrain Creek, I threw a boulder through the ice so I could collect the running water underneath.

Quite the slope coming off of North Sheep Mt.