Hike to Gore Lake, Eagles Nest Wilderness, Vail, Colorado
I was looking to round out my Labor Day Weekend with another hike on Monday and decided to go on a solo Volunteer Wilderness Ranger Patrol for ESWA to Gore Lake from the Gore Creek Trailhead in Vail. I set out early as I knew it would be a long hike. The first few people I ran into on the trail were two separate groups of bow hunters. Neither group had had any luck. I continued along the trail where the first several miles were very quiet, and I was surprised I didn’t see many people. However, that quickly changed! As I got closer to the turn off for the Gore Lake Trail, I started running into groups of backpackers that were heading back to the trailhead after camping at Gore Lake the night before. I ran into 19 groups of overnight users with 57 individuals having spent the night at Gore Lake. I’m honestly not sure where they all fit.
The trail hikes along Gore Creek most of the way until the intersection with Gore Lake Trail where there are also some old graves. I wonder what the story is for the individuals buried there. Once I turned onto the Gore Lake Trail, the trail got much steeper. After 6.2 miles of hiking from the car, I made it to Gore Lake. At the lake there were a couple of families with children fishing and dogs running around off leash (dogs must be on leash in the Eagles Nest Wilderness area). I stopped and had lunch at the lake, but honestly it was anything but peaceful with all of the commotion going on. While the lake is a beautiful high alpine lake, I’m not sure why one would choose to go backpacking at that lake because of how popular it is, particularly on a holiday weekend. There are plenty of lakes in the Gore Range that you could go to where you wouldn’t see a soul. The solitude is what attracts me to backpacking, but perhaps others don’t feel the same way. I digress. Overall, it’s a very pretty lake and is a great, long day hike. That said, if you are looking to go backpacking in the Vail area, I would consider looking into other options unless you don’t mind sharing the lake with 18 other groups! The hike ended up being 12.6 miles round trip with 2700 vert. Another great day spent in the mountains.
