Quandary Peak (14,265 feet) is the highest summit of the Tenmile Range and one of Colorado's most accessible fourteeners. The standard East Ridge route runs about 6.75 miles round trip with roughly 3,450 feet of gain, leaving treeline near 12,000 feet for a long, open ridge walk. Mountain goats work the upper mountain on most summer days, and the summit looks out to Grays and Torreys, the Gore Range, and the dredge-scarred Blue River valley below.

Know the access rules before you go: in summer (roughly June through September), trailhead parking is by advance reservation only, or you can ride the $7 round-trip shuttle from the Breckenridge South Gondola lot — book either at hikequandary.com. Start before 6am to be off the summit ahead of afternoon lightning.

Silver prospectors worked the peak in the 1860s, and the name reportedly comes from miners in a "quandary" over an ore sample they couldn't identify. Winter ascents follow the east ridge as the standard snow route and require avalanche training.