Hike to Salmon Lake in Silverthorne, Colorado
We woke up the day after our hike to Lower Crystal Lake (see last blog post) feeling pretty good and wanted to do another hike that day. It hadn’t snowed at my house overnight, but it looked like the mountaintops may have gotten some. We decided on a hike that wouldn’t take us to any peaks and would hopefully avoid most snow. We decided to hike to Salmon Lake from the Willowbrook trailhead. We would also consider continuing on to Willow Lakes depending on how we were feeling. Mike had some things he needed to get done that day, so it was just going to be me and Annie.
We set out from the trailhead fairly early as we knew it was going to be a longer hike and wanted to give ourselves plenty of time in case there was an afternoon storm. We set out from the trailhead and the Aspen trees were stunning to look at, with bright yellow leaves that were nearing the end of their lives. We were pleased with our trail selection as there seemed to be no snow on it, but after a few miles, that would change.
I love the contrast of the yellow leaves with the snow on the ground in this picture!
We ran into two women that were coming down the trail and briefly stopped to talk to them. We asked them if they made it up to any of the lakes, and they said they had turned around before the lakes because the snow was getting too deep. They were in sweatpants and running shoes, neither of which are good items to have when hiking in even a dusting of snow so we weren’t sure how much snow that would actually mean. We quickly found out.
Before we knew it, we were trudging through 3-4” of snow. Thankfully there had been a hiker in front of us whose tracks were able to follow as it wasn’t obvious at all times which way the trail went. Our walking speed also slowed down as it takes a lot more effort to walk in snow of that depth, not to mention needing to be a little more aware of where you’re placing your foot each step to avoid slipping!
As you can see, the snow started getting deeper
After a little over 5 miles, we made it to Salmon Lake. Unfortunately, by this point were were in a snowstorm with a pretty low cloud over us so we didn’t get to see the peaks above the lake. The lake with the snow around it still made for a pretty sight though. I hadn’t been expecting it to be as cold or as snowy as it was and was a bit underprepared with the gear I brought - I had only worn thin running gloves and my fingers were getting cold pretty quickly in the storm. So we didn’t linger at the lake long, determined we didn’t want to walk to Willow Lakes in the current conditions, and decided to head back.
Salmon Lake
On the way down we ran into many more hikers than we did on the way up. I stopped to talk to many of them to see if I could answer any questions and potentially provide some education on what Wilderness is as I was actually counting this as a Volunteer Wilderness Ranger patrol for the Eagle Summit Wilderness Alliance (ESWA). This hike was mostly in the Eagles Nest Wilderness, one of the areas ESWA helps the Forest Service patrol. What is ESWA? You should check them out here. They are an all volunteer organization that focuses on protecting and preserving the Eagles Nest Wilderness, Holy Cross Wilderness, and Ptarmigan Peak Wilderness. Mike and I volunteer for them through their Volunteer Wilderness Ranger patrol program as well as through some of their committees. They have opportunities in trail maintenance, sawyering (tree cutting), weed spotting, advocacy work, and more. You should really check them out.
Me in my ESWA uniform. Check them out!
As we got closer to the car, it started looking more and more like fall again. This hike really was one where it felt like we were in multiple seasons within the same day. By the time we were back at the car, we were in t-shirts again, and it was almost comical to think that at one point on this hike, my fingers were going numb from not having sufficient enough gloves.
This hike ended up being 10.5 miles with just under 2,500 ft of vert. Unfortunately, with the weather we didn’t have the views I was hoping for, but that just means I’ll have to come back when the weather conditions are more favorable.
The last bit of fall
Whats’ your favorite season?
