Over the fourth of July holiday this year, Nick and I decided to head out to the Telluride/Ouray area of Colorado, six hours away. I did not think it would feasible to do much of anything when the pandemic hit, so I was excited we were able to take this road trip. We decided we would keep it safe by doing only dispersed and backcountry camping, in which there are no facilities. We had a fun drive out on Wednesday, July 8, stopping in fun places like Buena Vista and Salida along the way. Our goal was to get to a dispersed camping spot near the trailhead of Blue Lakes in the Mount Sneffels Wilderness so that we could begin a backpacking trip there the next day. I had somehow seen this hike and marked it as something I wanted to do as soon as I saw the pictures, but knew it would be a long drive. I was so excited when I realized we could actually do it.
We drove down a rocky road and wondered if there even was a dispersed camping site, but enjoyed gorgeous scenery with 14er Mount Sneffels in the background. When we got to the site, we were amazed at how stunning it was.
The weather was so clear that we were actually able to have our tent in stargazer mode. Whenever we woke up, we saw tons of stars. I also started testing out the night mode on my camera phone.
The next day, we got up at sunrise to beat the crowds and headed to the nearby trailhead. We strapped on our packs and started a steep, uphill climb. It was gorgeous and peaceful, but started to fill with people. We saw a solo backpacker coming down who told us about an amazing camping spot that we would end up taking. The trail up was tough with lots of stops, but it did start to flatten out a bit towards the end which was nice. It was 3 miles to the lower blue lake.
It was definitely worth all the work as we came upon the lake in the morning light. It is truly stunning. I have not altered my photos a bit to get this blue color.
We were there early enough that there were a lot of backpackers still with tents up from the previous night. Based on the advice from the kind backpacker, we snagged this spot:
Truly unreal. Our spot was far from other backpackers and was like our own little paradise, and still far enough from the lake (100 feet away) to be within regulation. The sky was perfectly blue with no sign of a Colorado monsoon. It was so early that once we set up camp, we had our coffee by the lake.
Next, we wanted to do a day hike to the upper lakes. It’s another mile to the upper blue lakes. It was a relief to just have our light daypacks as we headed up the steep path. Fueled by our morning coffee, we got stunning views of the lake below.
It was a tough hike up and the landscape turned rocky, with pikas and marmots scurrying past. Nick and I stopped for a snack break at the first upper lake, which was just as blue as the lower lake.
As you can see, the scenery was truly gorgeous. It felt like being in Lord of the Rings, or Iceland, or Scotland. We took the path to the second lake. It’s not as scary as it looks here! There were also a ton of wildflowers along the way.
We had lunch next to the upper lake. We watched people hike up the steep path to summit Mount Sneffels. Many people camp at Blue Lakes and then tackle the peak the next day. It requires some technical rock scrambling to get to the peak, but apparently, you can see all 3 lakes from the top.
We were ready to get back to our camp to relax for the rest of the day. We hiked down and it was pretty warm at this point. We decided to try getting in the lake, although I struggled to get past my waist deep due to the cold. It definitely felt amazing, and in the sun, you dry quickly. People swim, kayak, and fish in the lakes!
Nick and I settled into our favorite afternoon backpacking activity; reading and hammocking. And you can’t beat these backpacking views. The skies remained totally clear (the lack of rain was bad for Colorado’s fire season but made for good backpacking). It felt extremely peaceful despite the fact that this is a popular hiking and backpacking spot.
We ate dinner by the lake and watched the sun go down. We again were able to leave our tent in stargazer mode (no rain fly) and had the view below.
The next morning, because our tent fly was off, I saw a silent fox scurry through our campsite. We woke early to make breakfast by the lake. We decided to watch the sun come up over the mountains and the lake. It is amazing how different it looks as light hits it differently throughout the day.
We actually spent a perfect 24 hours with the lake, as we had arrived around 8 am the previous day and left around the same time.
It was definitely hard to say goodbye to the lake, but now that it was Friday, we wanted to beat the crowds, so headed out. We saw a ton of backpackers coming up as we left, along with day hikers, so I was glad we were able to do a midweek trip. We passed on our camping spot location to another friendly couple – hope they found it!
We headed to Ouray, a delightful mountain town, for food and drinks, and Black Canyon of the Gunnison as well, before finishing out the night in Salida and finding another dispersed camping spot. These are all places we loved and want to go back to.
Overall, this part of Colorado in the San Juan Mountains is absolutely beautiful. This was a trip we will definitely remember for a lifetime. We would definitely love to repeat it, but we have so many things in our list! Also in this area are Ice and Island Lakes, which are similarly stunning apparently.
