2014-08-13-CherryPeak
John, Scott, and Bob started hiking at about 7:40 AM, and were on the trail for 6 hours and 24 minutes. The weather started clear but quite humid from rain the previous days. By the end of the hike, clouds were building and threatening rain later.
Getting to the trailhead was a bit of a challenge. A new ski resort is under construction just below the trailhead, and the road is rerouted to the left (north) of the new lodge. Eventually we found the right road. It gets narrow near the trailhead, but has a couple of small pull-out areas for parking.
The trail is quite good, although it is steep in places. It crosses a stream a few times, which was no problem in August. The trail follows the Cherry Creek drainage until it reaches the head of the canyon, where it does a switchback and climbs onto the ridge leading to Cherry Peak. The trail itself stays below the peak, contouring along the southeast side and continuing eastward until it joins the Naomi Peak trail. You can either leave the trail and continue up the ridge to the peak, or stay on the trail a little farther until it goes over a little saddle, where there is a faint trail leading up toward the peak. I followed the ridge route going up, and the lower route coming down.
The lower route goes through a large meadow full of wildflowers on the south side of Cherry Peak. Many bees and hummingbirds were buzzing through the flowers.