Hope Lake Trail near Trout Lake

The Hope Lake Trail is a spur off the Galloping Goose Trail near Trout Lake between Lizard Head Pass and Telluride in southwest Colorado. It climbs through lush spruce and fir forest, toward the reddish Vermillion Peak and finds Hope Lake in a glacial basin. The spur road is near the old railroad trestle east of Trout Lake, east of Highway 145.

 I started on the forest service road that leads to the trailhead. It was steep uphill and it took me an hour to get to the actual trail head. From where I started, the elevation is about 10,000 feet. The actual trailhead is at 10,800 feet and Hope Lake is at 12,000 feet. A hiking couple along the Goose Trail made a point of telling me I could drive there and seemed stunned that I was going to walk, but it made for a good long and scenic hike.

The trail head sign said 3.5 miles to Hope Lake and it was also fairly steep uphill, lots of switch backs, with several creek crossings, and great views of the surrounding San Miguel range of mountains.

The meadow areas were rich with wildflowers, shoulder high larkspurs and Queen Anne's lace, lots of columbines, buttercups, Indian Paint Brushes and others.
 

The views back down toward Trout Lake were particularly spectacular, cars and travel trailers lumbering up the highway beyond the lake. But as I got closer to my goal, the ominous sound of thunder rumbled overhead. Both Hope Lake and Trout Lake provide the water pressure for the historic Ames Power plant.
 

I must have spent a full minute admiring the lake, well above the tree line, rocky and austere. Then a bolt crackled across the sky and rain began pelting down. I had a two hour power walk back to my car facing me, but luckily the rain was only guarding the high peaks.

On the way down, I passed two women and a young girl who were picking up some rocks to carry home. I asked if they were finding fossils, but they replied that it was the heart shaped rocks they were after.