Blue Lakes Trail

Author's Comments

Quandary Peak gets all the attention. The summit hikers stream up the east ridge from the main trailhead, and most of them never know that a few miles south, on a dirt road that punishes a low-clearance car, there is a trail that walks you under the mountain instead of over it. I came up Blue Lakes for the first time in late July, and there was still snow in the cirque. The trail moves through spruce and fir for the first stretch, climbing steadily but not unkindly, and then the trees thin and the world opens in that particular alpine way where suddenly the sky is doing most of the work. The lake sits at eleven thousand seven hundred feet in a bowl scooped out of the rock by ice that left a long time ago. The water is the color you have heard about and probably do not believe until you see it. Quandary rises directly behind, and on a still morning the reflection holds long enough to photograph properly. I went on a Saturday in August and saw four people the entire day. That feels almost impossible for Summit County in summer, and I am hesitant to write about it for that reason. But the trail is honest. It asks for the drive in, the early start, the willingness to be above treeline before the afternoon weather builds. Come at sunrise if you can. The light comes over the eastern ridge slowly and the lake holds its color for maybe an hour before the wind picks up and the surface breaks. Bring a wide lens. Leave time to sit.

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