Camping at Chambers Lake

This Labor Day weekend Ali and I decided to get a little camping in before it got too cold. We've been doing a lot of hiking in Estes and off of I-70 so for this trip we decided to go north of Estes Park to Chambers Lake. It took about 3 hours to get there from Denver with the last hour or so being a pretty drive but annoying when you get behind a slow vehicle.

Our actual campsite was about a 10 min walk from the lake and was pretty nice overall. Our inner pyromaniacs got to come out since there were quite a few dead trees and we had unlimited firewood! This site had two bathrooms and water about 2 min away so it was pretty convenient. Below is a pretty nice picture of Chambers Lake.

Blue Lake Trail
Our first trail was very close to our campsite. You could actually hike from the site but we drive about 3 min down the road and started at the actual trailhead. According to AllTrails, it's a 11.1 mile hike with around 2,250 elevation gain. This is only to the lake and you can continue to go past it if you want. By the time we hit the top of the ridge we ended up doing around 13 miles.

The first part of the trail is your typical forest trail where you can't see a whole lot and you steadily go uphill. There is one pretty view of Chambers Lake along the way and you pass some creeks which are pretty. Once you come to the lake, it opens up quite a bit and the views are pretty nice. The first picture below is our hardworking dog right before we hit the lake.

The next picture is a little ways behind the lake going up the ridge followed by a closeup of it.

Overall it was a pretty trail and I'd definitely do it again.

Camp Lakes, Rawah Lakes, and Twin Crater Lakes Loop

The next day I had an ambitious goal of doing a 24 mile loop that hits a lot of different lakes. This is normally a 2 - 3 day backpack trip if you really wanted to see everything but I had faith in us! From our campsite it was about a 10 min drive down a bumpy gravel road but wasn't too bad.

The trail starts out by a creek and a lot of Aspen trees. It's a very pretty area and looks ideal for moose and elk. A few miles in the trail forks and this is where you will end up finishing the loop. We decided to go clockwise and hit Twin Crater Lake first. The hike hit a lot of streams and had some pretty views as you hiked along side of the mountain however you definitely earned it because it was uphill the entire way. When we decided to do the Twin Crater branch, we didn't know it was about 1,500 more elevation gain but the views were very pretty from the top. The first picture is the larger of the lakes with the smaller one behind it to the right.

Here is a view as we were headed back down from the lake. There are a lot of streams and campsites in the valley.

Throughout the trail there were a ton of smaller lakes and we took way too many pictures so here are a few of my favorites. This lake is called Rawah lake Number 3.

This is a stream going into Upper Camp Lake. You can barely see the lake but this was probably the prettiest one for me since I liked the mountains in the background.

Overall this was an amazing hike. I wish we would have done it in 2 days to truly get to spend time at more of the lakes. While we didn't see any wildlife other than a few deer, if you get there early enough I'm sure you'll see a lot. It's a fairly popular hike so you'll see a lot of backpackers.

Montgomery Pass Trail

The last day we wanted to do a shorter hike since my feet were not very happy about the previous day. Montgomery Pass was about 10 min away from Chambers Lake. If you just go to the top of the pass it's about 4.4 miles down and back but the top of the mountain adds another mile or so. I was a pansy because of blisters so I went to the pass but Ali headed all the way to the top. 

While the trail was nice, compared to the previous ones it wasn't anything special. The first portion is just a wooded trail followed by a more open treeless section. If it wasn't so hazy the views would have been a lot better.

Lonesome Lake Trail

This year we've been doing a lot of hikes in Rocky Mountain National Park so we decided to head west of Vail to Lonesome Lake for a new view. The drive isn't too bad until the last 8 miles when your smooth paved road switches to a bumpy gravel road. It's still not nearly as bad as the ride up to Gray's or the Fourth of July trailhead but definitely slows you down. One good thing about the location is that it's fairly isolated and not many people were around. There wasn't a parking lot and you could just park anywhere along the road. We didn't have any issues as we only saw 6 other people on the trail all day and they camped overnight by the lake.

The trail starts out with a steady uphill climb through the woods. You can hear the creek in the distance but there isn't much to see until you have to cross the creek. When we went the bridge was down but the water wasn't very high so it was a pretty easy crossing. After that, you continue through the woods a little more until you get to the valley.

The valley/meadow area is pretty cool overall as you get a good view of the mountains on each side and as you continue down the trail there are quite a few streams that go down the middle of it. For a while the trail is pretty flat and goes right beside the open area and other times you are walking on the side of the mountain more and it's harder to see down because of the trees. Overall this looks like an ideal spot for deer, moose, elk, etc. but we didn't see any.

After a few miles you then get away from the valley and start going uphill to the lake. It's not very steep but you can definitely tell it's uphill after your fairly flat walk the past few miles.

There are some pretty nice views looking back at the valley once you get at the top and you start to see some of the mountains up close. Below is a picture of Lonesome Lake from the other side of the trail.

Here's another picture of Ali flexing on a rock. Normally it's "sun's out, guns out" but she's normally cold so that won't happen much.

In total, the trail was around 11 miles after we walked around the lake with 1,932 elevation gain. It was a good change of pace to get away from everyone and have a very peaceful hike. The views were good but nothing amazing. If you wanted to do this trail, I'd go as early as you could and try to see some wildlife in the valley. That is probably the biggest upside to this trail.