I love a good hike to a lake, especially one nestled deep in the mountains you can only reach on foot. When we picked our hike this week we wanted one up near Nederland and I’m so glad we landed on this one for a couple reasons.
First, it was so luscious and green thanks to the recent rain, there were a ton of river crossings and waterfalls along the way and it had a gorgeous little mountain lake.
Plan to get to the trailhead early because there isn’t a ton of parking. We arrived around 9:30am and grabbed one of the last spots. You start off walking right along the river, a little taste of the river you’ll follow most of the way up.
The elevation definitely made the first stretch of uphill tougher than what I’m typically used to, I had to stop more than a few times to catch my breath! Not to mention the path is a lot of loose rocks and gravel (which I slipped on several times on the way down.)
But once you get past the steeper, gravely spots you’re rewarded with the sound of rushing water & your first (baby) waterfall! The rest of the way isn’t nearly as steep, offers a lot more shade and several more crossings of the gorgeous river.
We did this hike after a late spring snow, so there we a couple times the path was covered in water & we had to hop from rock to rock to get to the other side.
The final half mile stretch to the lake is almost completely shaded, which was nice!
Then there’s the lake!
We wandered around the lake for a bit which added an extra half mile or so. Then on the way out we decided to explore a bit farther toward another lake. You could spend days getting lost in the Indian Peaks Wilderness – which people do! There are spots for camping at Lost Lake (you need a permit) and tons of other lakes to explore – which we can’t wait to go back and do!
