Aim for the curve in the Yankee Boy road when descending Potosi Peak. Once you run out of tundra, you should have a deep grotto to your right and a shallow, gray gully on your left, which you follow down to where you enter an orange gully, then you exit that gully onto an orange scree mound for a welcome "scree ski" to the Yankee Boy basin floor.

In this photo, the deep (and dangerous) grotto is on our right. The gray and orange gullies are below but cannot be seen (the slopes are steeper at the bottom). We descended cautiously as the tundra gave way to scree, placing us on a rocky perch between the grotto and the gully, and from there we could see the rest of our descent, which still required much caution to safely execute.

In the distance is the sprawling green beauty of Yankee Boy Basin, known the world over for its fantastic displays of wildflowers. Stony Peak (left), Gilpin Peak (center), and 14er Mount Sneffels (right) frame the view.

For more information, be sure to see the Standard Route Page for this mountain on the Potosi Peak page.

Summer, 2007. San Juan Mountains.

Digital photo by Aaron Johnson