Hike to Cherry Lake, Sangre de Cristo Wilderness, Crestone, Colorado
We were looking to avoid crowds on Memorial Day Weekend so we decided to head down to the Sangre de Cristo mountain range to car camp with a few friends. We camped on the west side of the range, not far from the Wild Cherry Creek trailhead. So, unsurprisingly, the first day we decided to hike up to Cherry Lake.
The trail up to Cherry Lake came with a lot of vertical, but was one of the better constructed trails I’ve seen. The grading made it such that it never felt steep and you didn’t realize that you had hiked over 3,000 vertical feet. Most of the hike was below tree-line with some views along the way of the valley we walked up.
We eventually made it to the lake, which had a few other smaller lakes around it. It was such a pretty spot. The day we were there the winds were over 40 mph and the lake had whitecaps. We had brought our fly rods but I didn’t even put mine together because I knew it would be pointless in that kind of wind. There were two other individuals trying to fish, but neither had any luck while we were there.
After eating lunch, we turned around and headed out the way we came. This hike was a very straightforward out and back and was not busy. I wonder if we would have seen anyone at all if it wasn’t Memorial Day Weekend. The hike ended up being 11.5 miles and 3270 vert and is one I’d recommend if you’re ever in the area.
