Now this is the place to blog from. At 11,880 on a perfect fall day in a beautiful mountain cirque with a view all the way back down to the wet valley. Wow! The lake is a climb for sure as the trailhead is at 8,900 some feet and the lake is at 11,880. But not a horrible trail and it is 5 miles to make the 3,000 ft climb. I will probably be back here. The lake has some great trout I saw as I was filling my water bottle. A great place to come back to do some fishng and an overnighter. There a some good places back in the trees about a mile back from the lake or up by the lake but really exposed in the event of a thunderstorm…..I am sure that is common up here in the summer. A good place for a fairly fit family or I think you could ride most of it. There is some deadfall you would have to work around but I think you could. There are horse hitching rails at the trailhead. It was about .6 mi up the Rainbow trail to the south before we hit the Horn Creek Trail itself and began to head west. A steady and sometimes steep climb up through mostly dark timber but some aspens earlier in the trail. This trail is a little steeper and slightly longer than Lake of the Clouds Trail, but the view in my opinion is twice as good and much more dramatic. You can see all the way back down into the wet valley from the lake! Looks like a great place for Elk to be as there are lots of marshes and ponds up here high, but I have not seen a ton of sign either. So maybe they don’t like it or maybe they are a little lower. Not sure.
This morning before our hike we went to the forest service office in Silvercliff….a more historic but now more insignificant suburb of Westcliff. And talked with the guy in the know there about trails in the Wet Mountains and the Greenhorns. So we are going to go over there tomorrow and check them out for a day or two. Sad to leave our Grape Creek Campground, but time to check out some new country.
