Watanga Lake

The original plan for this weekend was to go to Hessie Trailhead on the east side of Indian Peaks Wilderness. The snow map provided by NOAA showed that almost all of the snow was gone from this area and we were hoping to do a nice loop hike over the continental divide. Our plans changed when we went to the ranger station to get our backpacking permit. The ranger told us that there was significant snow pack and a large portion of our planed route would be in snow. And going over the divided would require ice axes and crampons. Which we currently don't have :(. Looking at other options the ranger pointed out that the west side of the Indian Peaks Wilderness starts much lower than the east around 8,000 ft instead of 10,000 ft, and as a result does not have much snow this time of the year. We decided this was a good option and got our permit.

We started our hike at the Roaring Fork Trailhead located at the edge of Lake Granby. The trail quickly climbs from the trailhead. After gaining close to 1000 vertical feet the trail levels off some and winds its way up through a valley next to Roaring Creek. The trail has a few more steep stretches as it approaches Watanga Lake. Due to spring runoff some of the stream crossings were a bit difficult but we were able to find places to jump across. For about the last mile or so we did hit snow. The snow made staying on the trail a little difficult but that isn't a big deal because the trail follows the creek and you can hear the creek easily. The snow slowed us down a little but it wasn't as bad as a lady we met on the trail made it out to be, she said that we would be post-holeing for a mile up to our waist. We did post-hole a little but only up to our shins and only occasionally.

When we arrived at Watanga Lake we decided to follow a creek that was flowing into it. At the top of a small slope we found a clearing over a small wetland area that the small creek flowed through. We decided to set up our camp here. It was a great spot with a grassy area, good hammock trees and a decent view to some of the small mountains to the west. All in all this was a great place to call home for a night.