Eleven miles up a dirt road off US 40 near Tabernash is the Junco Lake Trailhead. The name confuses me. The only Junco Lake I can find in Colorado is the one in Wild Basin in RMNP. That Junco Lake is twelve miles to the north on the other side of the Continental Divide. You can’t get there from here.
Where you can get from here is Columbine Lake. There is likely more than one Columbine Lake in Colorado. This one lies 11,047′ above sea level in the morning shadow of the northern flank of Mount Neva in the Indian Peaks Wilderness. This is my third view of Mount Neva, having visited Lake Dorothy and the Neva Lakes.
I very nearly decided to hike to Caribou Lake via Arapaho Pass. It would have been about as strenuous as my two recent hikes near Vail. I thought I’d take a break, though, from the steep ones and do an easy one. Protrails.com has been offline for a while now, so I think it’s dead. I don’t think I like Alltrails as much. Alltrails lists Columbine Lake as 3.4 miles each way. CalTopo maps shows it as 3.23 miles.
Tuesday, July 23
Because it’s a shorter hike, I didn’t need to hit the road before dawn. It’s a tad over two hours to get to the trailhead. The trailhead is in the national forest and there’s a use fee. Their website says I can use my lifetime pass. Unfortunately, the kiosk had no way for me to use my pass so I paid the five bucks.
I arrived at the trailhead a few minutes after nine. There was plenty of parking available. I had a quick chat with a couple of guys who were putting on their backpacks. They were headed to Caribou Lake over Caribou Pass. I can imagine how much fun hefting forty pounds up that trail. I think if I was camping at Caribou Lake, I’d take the long way from Monarch Lake instead of the bonus 800′ of elevation (each way!).
Anywho, I put boots on the trail at 9:16. The first section of trail, up to the Indian Peaks Boundary sign is an old 4×4 road, full of loose, round rocks but easy hiking. Somehow I missed it on the way up, not spotting it until nearly back to the car, there’s a derelict cabin a few yards off the trail.
From the boundary to the junction with the spur trail to the lake, the trail skirts a large grassy meadow. The open meadows mean open views, and before long we get a nice look at Mount Neva. Half a mile after entering the Wilderness, there’s a trail junction. The main trail continues to the left, eventually topping Caribou Pass. To reach Columbine Lake, take the trail to the right.
The final mile and a half of trail is the most scenic. Unfortunately, today the air is full of smoke from wildfires in Canada and the Pacific Northwest, a thousand or more miles away. All too far away to give the air a smokey smell, but enough to make what should be brilliant blue to something between gray and a pale brown.
Columbine Lake gets a fair amount of visitors, and there are social trails that circumnavigate it. I went around it counter-clockwise. Doing this, you get dumped back onto the trail to the lake a fair distance below the actual lake. Had I intended to go around the lake clockwise, I probably wouldn’t have found the little trail. In any event, the lake is surrounded by grassy meadows filled with wildflowers.
The one flower I didn’t see all day: columbines! I don’t know how many lakes in Colorado are called Columbine Lake (and, certainly, there is more than one) but I’m guessing this is the only one where you won’t see any columbines.
Overall, an easy and enjoyable hike.
Timetable
| SEgment | Length | Elev Gain | Time | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trailhead to IPW boundary | 1.4 mi | 268’/mi | 0:33 | 2.5 mph |
| IPW boundary to trail jct | 0.5 mi | 260’/mi | 0:17 | 1.8 mph |
| Trail jct to Columbine Lake | 1.4 mi | 332’/mi | 0:54 | 1.5 mph |
| Trailhead to Columbine Lake | 3.3 mi | 300’/mi | 1:44 | 1.9 mph |