Sunshine Peak is a fourteen thousand foot mountain peak in the U.S. state of Colorado. It is located in the San Juan Mountains in Hinsdale County approximately 9 mi south west of Lake City, and about 1 mi south of Redcloud Peak. It rises on the north side of the Lake Fork of the Gunnison River. Sunshine Peak has the distinction of being the lowest of Colorado's 53 fourteeners. It is also not particularly independent from its higher neighbor Redcloud Peak, with a topographic prominence of 481 ft (the minimum standard for an independent fourteener is 300 ft). However it has more and steeper local relief than many of the other fourteeners. For example, it rises 4450 ft above the townsite of Sherman to the south in only 1.2 mi.

Climate

According to the Köppen climate classification system, the mountain is located in an alpine subarctic climate zone with cold, snowy winters, and cool to warm summers. Due to its altitude, it receives precipitation all year, as snow in winter, and as thunderstorms in summer, with a dry period in late spring.