We did this hike Sunday June 24, 2018. I did some reading and discovered this hike was relatively forgotten; not much was written and not many people seemed to hike it.

We parked at the end of the Sheep River road and began our hike. I knew we would need to do some bushwhacking from the main trail to meet up with this trailhead. Little did I know, that would entail most of the hike.

To do Mount Burns, you need an early start and to be in good shape; it’s long and strenuous from what I read. We decided to only do the east summit rather than the full hike. We were rewarded with amazing vistas, picturesque forest scenes, and majestic peaks.

There were 2 false summits and then you get to the east summit. We only made it to the second false summit and called it quits due to being fatigued.

We decided to go down the big scree slope on the other side of the mountain… I looked at the maps and discovered it was doable if we stick to the dry creek and follow it down. It was a fantastic way down until we found out that that creek turned into a waterfall. We managed to traverse down carefully until we came to a larger drop that wasn’t doable. So we went around and found another way down.

We were supposed to meet up with an old road (closed) and hike back to the car on that but what I failed to recognize on my map was that the road crossed the Sheep River and was on the other side. So back up we went to get over the cliffs by the river. By this time we were done and just wanted the car… Back down a much steeper slope this time. I ended up sitting on my feet and sliding all the way down.

Back down to the river we were able to meet up with the road and hike back to the car.

In Summary:

A great hike. It’s a lot of vertical in a short distance. Great views and awarding peaks. Just don’t go off the west side of the mountain.