The
summit of Cloud Peak (13,164’) is the most tempting target in the Bighorns. As
a rare Wyoming Thirteener, the namesake of its surrounding Wilderness Area, and
the highest peak in the range, Cloud Peak attracts more than its fair share of
climbers. Throughout my time in the Bighorns the West Tensleep valley approach was
the only route in the wilderness where seeing other parties was likely. Several
of my friends had been exploring the range, and Tod, Kathy, Leroy, and I
decided to make an attempt on Cloud Peak. Our plan was to hike from West Tensleep
Trailhead past Mistymoon Lake to camp along Upper Paint Rock Creek. We’d make
our summit attempt on the middle day, and have a leisurely hike out on day
three.
View from Upper Paintrock Creek
On
Friday we drove from Lead, SD to the West Tensleep Campground. The parking lot
and campground looked full, and we slept in the trucks. Kathy and Leroy had
their dog Sophie, and Tod had a friend’s dog that he was taking care of.
We
were up early Saturday morning and hiked for 4 ½ hours past lakes Helen,
Marion, and Mistymoon to the falls on Paint Rock Creek. All the meadows along
the trail were choked with a bountiful display of flowers. But the bugs were
nearly as thick, though they seemed to bother Tod and Leroy more than Kathy or
I.
I’d
made an aborted attempt to hike in this way over Memorial Day, and it was easy
to see the difference two months made. This time, there was no snow, and the
trail was wide and well maintained. The trail got a lot of horse traffic, and
the maintenance was sorely needed. The views of the lakes and peaks from the
trail were great. Mistymoon Lake always had a foreboding look. This time my
instincts were right, and we got an early light shower as we passed by it.
Campsite upper Paintrock Creek.
Another
group occupied the prime campsite above Paint Rock falls. So, we set up camp on
the ridge just north of the outlet stream of Frisbee Lake, and just above the
smaller lake to the west. Our site was sheltered by the trees, and probably
better than the main site.
After
a luncheon feast we took naps, then walked west to see Lake Solitude. It was
magnificent. The lake entirely fills its narrow valley and has a small beach on
its east end. I was hot and sweaty from the walk and took a brief swim as did
Tod. For such a large lake the water was temperate. The hike to the lake was
also super scenic. Paint Rock Creek flows through a narrow steep valley most of
the way, and there is a series of nice waterfalls along the side creeks. 
Waterfall, upper Paintrock Creek.
The
Bighorns are notorious for dinner time rain showers. Even armed with this
knowledge, I couldn’t get dinner cooked before the rain came. On previous
trips, these showers were minor nuisances, but not this time. This one started
with pea sized hail, then alternated between sheets of rain and more bouts of
hail. The contrast between the sunny swim at Lake Solitude, and eating warm
gruel back at a soggy camp was pretty stark. As the storm was ending another
group came over the hill from Mistymoon, looking in bad shape. They were mostly
wearing sneakers and slide their way down the slope.
Lake Solitude from the east.
After
a good night’s sleep, we got an early start, hoping to avoid the afternoon
storms common in the high peaks. We saw that the late group had camped in the
first meadow past the falls, which looked to be the best site in the area.
Beyond
the falls there is no maintained trail to the top of Cloud Peak. But the Michael
Melius guidebook describes it well, and the route is easy to follow in clear
weather. I had hiked this route with Craig in 1986, but this would be the first
time for the others. Most of the route was marked by cairns through the valley
to a small headwall. We began to spread out above the headwall. I’d forgotten
how sheer the heavily glaciated east face of Cloud Peak is. From the route it
looks like something out of Yosemite. I felt great during the climb, which was
a surprise since I hadn’t done that much climbing recently. We had great views all the way up. I even scoped
out a route in the valley between Bomber and Cloud to Glacier Lake for my “to
do” list.
Sophie climbing Cloud Peak.
At
the top was another couple, and a register with numerous recent entries. The
route got more use than I thought. Tod was getting pumped up for a climb of
Black Tooth or Wolsey, prominent to our north, and looking savagely rugged. But
I wasn’t sure if I wanted to take on those technical peaks.
Woolsey and Black Tooth from Cloud Peak
As
usual, the clouds began to gather soon after we hit the top. So, after shooting
all our film we headed down. But before we got off the ridge we were caught in
another mixed hail/rainstorm. This storm was harder than the one last evening,
and carried a lot of lightening. At one point all our hair began to stand on
end, and our ice axes (not needed) began to hum. Temporarily ditching the axes,
we crawled into what shelter we could find in the boulders to avoid the
lightening and the pummeling of the hail. There was another group coming up
behind us. We never saw if they turned around, or made it to the summit. I’d
been caught in mountain top storms before, but this one had stronger and more frequent
lightening than any storm I’d been in.
No Tod, that's not our descent route.
Hiding
in those rocks was bad, but trying to run across the ridge after the lightening
stopped was miserable. We all wanted off that ridge ASAP, but the ridge was
covered in big boulders and the green moss on them got snotty slick when wet. I
was still rattled by the power of the storm and the obvious electric field we’d
been in. We all made it off the ridge. The four of us were a little worse for
wear, and more so for the dogs, especially Sophie who was afraid of thunder.
Group shot on the summit of Cloud Peak.
The
rain stopped by the time we got to the headwall, though the sky never did
clear. The runoff down the mountain was intense. At one point we came to a
cairn perched on a large rock. When we came up it was dry, now it was covered
by a stream for 5’ on each side. The wind had drifted the hail into small piles
around the flowers and small rivulets were flowing through the grasses. Because
of the high flow, Paint Rock Creek looked hard to cross. I continued well below
the falls to make my ford a little easier.
Lucky
for us, our campsite survived the storm intact.
But
we had no more appetite for risking the wrath of Cloud Peak’s weather, and
decided to hike back to West Tensleep. We were all tired, but we knew it would
be an easy, and almost all downhill, hike back. But this time instead of
enjoying the scenery, we just wanted to get the walk over with. My notes don’t even
indicate if we camped at West Tensleep that night, or drove back to Lead.
From
the campsite, Cloud Peak took 3 ½ hours up, and four hours down, including the
time spent hiding out from the storm. The walk back to the trailhead took another
four hours and we arrived there at 7 PM. For reference, the current (Dec 2023)
Fastest Known Time (FKT) for the entire Cloud
Peak roundtrip from the trailhead is currently 4:18.
Cloud
Peak remains the highest summit that I’ve repeated. Before I left the area I
would climb four other named 12,000’ peaks in the wilderness, and four other named
9-10,000 footers in the National Forest to the south of US 16.
