Exploring Colorado’s Bluest Alpine Lakes
Our backpacking objectives for this summer are sticking closer to home because of COVID-19, but we’re beyond excited to be driving down to the San Juan Mountains to “socially distance” ourselves by going as deep into the mountains as possible. We made it an extra long-weekend and decided to spend 5 days in the San Juans. After camping somewhere along the way on Wednesday night, we spent the latter part of Thursday hiking into a basin that had been on our radar for a while for a two-night backpacking trip. We felt so fortunate upon arriving at our camping spot for the first night to be one of only a few tents within eyesight. After setting up camp, we scrambled up above the lake to get better views - and we were so happy we did. The views of the surrounding mountains really make you appreciate the vastness of the San Juans.
Our camping spot was above treeline so there were no trees to hang our food from to keep it out of the reach of bears. Instead, we built a rock fortress to protect our food and keep it as out of reach as possible given the lack of tree cover. Unfortunately, our fortress was penetrated by the marmots and crows - and it turns out the bigger threat there was those “mini bears” as Andrew Skurka likes to call the small animals you see in the backcountry. The marmots and crows were very particular with what they chose to eat though and ate our “slender james” - the fond name we give to the fancier slim jims you can buy. From there, we kept pressing on - only a few fallen slender james lost to the mini bears at the first lake. The view hiking to the second lake was spectacular and the bright blue color of the water motivated us to arrive as quickly as possible.
The second lake was far more crowded, but the crowds dwindled as sunset approached. We scrambled up above this lake too and the wildflowers were the star of the show! It was a full field of wildflowers looking down on this beautiful lake that was the color of glacial frost gatorade.
It was surprising how many people we passed hiking in as we were hiking out - and it felt like (hopefully) a very unique time hiking because of people wearing masks or buffs and being extra courteous with the amount of space given to other hikers when passing. An unfortunate downside of this was the widening of many trails, as people constantly trampled plants on either side of the trail to maintain space from passing hikers.
For the rest of the trip we planned to do a 1-night backpacking trip into a different basin and car camp for the other night in the nearby area. We decided to take a 1-night break before the next backpacking trip and used that time to relax in some hot springs that we had spent a lot of time searching for on Google Maps. The hot springs ended up being lukewarm springs but it was still fun.
Our relaxing evening continued when we stumbled upon a breathtaking camping site that created some Jeep commercial worthy photos of our camping setup. It was a perfect place to watch the sunset & camp before another backpacking expedition the next day.
We drove Ophir Pass to take the shortcut between Million Dollar Highway and Telluride and it was an experience to say the least! We encountered one very unhappy Subaru driver who was very grumpy about passing us on the narrow mountain pass, even when we created plenty of space. I can’t imagine if you had two huge trucks up there trying to pass each other - there was little room to spare! After some morning coffee and pastries in Telluride, we thought we would be fueled up to start hiking. Unfortunately, we were a little slower moving and thought some Gatorade would help after we had been talking about the Glacier Frost Gatorade in the context of the water color earlier that week. Maybe it was too much Gatorade on a mostly empty stomach, but Grady bonked pretty hard on the hike into the next lake. We were surprised by how many people were backpacking into this location so we were worried about finding a camping spot within a reasonable proximity of the lake and that met the restrictions for where you could camp. We decided that I’d continue onwards to find us a camping spot and Grady would rest for a bit. That rest turned into a nap and as time ticked on, I started to get worried if he would find me at the spot I’d picked for our camp. Thankfully, Grady slowly emerged up the right trail and I was so relieved to not be hiking back down to find him! We explored around the lake and saw a beautiful fox walk right in front of us. The scale of the rock walls around the lake was unbelievable in person, but is hard to fully appreciate in the photos. It was an absolutely worthwhile place just to be and experience.
The San Juans are just as spectacular as we expected and we’re ready to start planning our next trip down here!
The video below contains footage from this trip, among others. Check it out!