Attempted Public Land Route on 8er Thwarted by Beautiful Sunset that Came Too Soon

Unnamed 8679 is a Jeffco peak that I hiked back in 2023 along with 4 other nearby 8ers the same day. 8728 is yet another 8er in this area, albeit just over the boundary into Park County. Most people who climb 8728 seem to start on the road to the south, but I wanted to try to stay entirely on national forest land by going over 8679 first. I had this idea in my head for a while, and last week my partner and I had just finished at the climbing gym and decided to give it a shot since this was one of my closest unclimbed peaks on public land. Unfortunately, we got to the trailhead pretty late around 3 pm.

Map of the Hike: (Caltopo)

(8728 is labeled 8722 on the 2016 FS Topo map. Its elevation on Lists of John was updated with lidar data)

Stats:

3.97 miles

1345 ft of vert

2 hours 7 minutes

This would actually be my third time on 8679. I had been here earlier in the year to climb at Wild Thing Wall, which is a wonderful collection of easy routes bolted by a guy named Tal. The climbers have built a great network of trails to access the various walls on 8679, aka Castle View Crags. Named for The Castle, which indeed looks pretty cool from here. Here's me on the crux of Hollow Hands 5.9

No climbing today though! We used the climber's trail to get close to the summit of 8679, then veered north to reach the summit. This peak has great views, and Staunton State Park looked especially cool.

After spending possibly a little too much time organizing the summit register pages by year, we dropped off the northwest side of the peak, still hoping that there would be time to reach 8728. We were now trailless, but the going was pretty easy. Eventually, we were greeted by a view of Dental Dome, another one of the Castle View Crags. Behind it, you can see 8728.

We walked downhill past Dental Dome, and we could see the horizontal dike that forms the route Via Dentata. Geology is pretty cool

A little farther downhill, the bushwhacking got marginally worse. More importantly, the sun got very low and it became clear that there was not enough time for us to do the second peak, and we decided to turn back. As a consolation, the sunset lit up the big peaks in the distance (mt. blue sky, etc.) in a pretty way.

On the way back we found a climber's trail that services Dental Dome, and we followed that most of the way back to the summit of 8679. During this re-ascent, the moon rose, perfectly framed by Banner Peak and Cathedral Spires.

We lost the trail near the summit, and then found it again to descend back to the car. On the drive back we listened to Wide Open Spaces by The Chicks, Big Time by Angel Olsen, and I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight by Linda and Richard Thompson.

Someday I will be back to get this 8er.