Bridal Veil Falls Trail at Telluride

Bridal Veil Falls is just to the east of Telluride town, in southwest Colorado. It is one of four waterfalls visible in the Telluride area, and is a popular destination.


It's possible to drive to the top of the falls with  4WD. I started my hike in the free parking at the southwest end of town and walked along the San Miguel River Trail, a strip of clear running mountain stream winding between the ski lodges, condos, and sports shops, past a beaver pond and through the town park and camp ground.


At the east end of town the river trail merges with the Idarado Legacy Trail, a segment with interpretive signs that point out the mining history of Telluride.

Past the old mill, a rough steep road, surrounded by towering peaks, climbs by switchbacks up towards the falls.

It is possible to drive through town to trailhead parking and start 1.2 miles from the base of the falls, or 1.8 miles to the top. Along the way there are also some views of Ingram Falls.

From a distance, it looks like there is a building up above the falls. What can that be, way up there? The historic markers point out that the building is a power plant, originally built in 1907 to supply power for mining operations. After a checkered history, the plant has been restored and is currently producing current.

One of the switchbacks bends back right at the base of the falls, a light mist blowing off the water tumbling about 365  feet.

It took me 2:30 hours to get up to the power plant from the west end of town, spending part of the time dodging 60 or so crazed dirt bike riders ripping down the rough road on a multi day mountain tour. At the top it is possible to continue on Black Bear Road toward Ingram Falls, or toward Blue Lake and Bridal Veil Basin.

On the return hike, I took advantage of the free summer gondola rides from Telluride Station, taking off from right along the River Trail up to Mountain Village, a Telluride suburb that doesn't fit in the the Victorian themed valley.

The gondola has a stop at Station St. Sophia, a scenic trail head with a nature center, and then descends down into the upscale Mountain Village area. The Mountain Village area has more ski lodges, condos, lifts, and sports shops, and the golf course is up there, next to a lot of nice looking houses.

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.

Navajo Lake Trail in Lizard Head Wilderness

The Navajo Lake Trail is about a 9.6 mile round trip to Navajo Lake on the southwest side of the Lizard Head Wilderness in the San Juan Forest of southwest Colorado.

The trail head is just west of the Meadows area and can be reached from the south along the Dolores River West Fork Road or from the Dunton Road that connects to Highway 145 south of Telluride. The trail head elevation is about 9200 feet and the elevation at Navajo Lake is 11,154 feet.

The Groundhog Trail begins at the same trailhead. You can also hike to this trailhead on the Burro Bridge Trail from the Burro Bridge campground. The Kilpacker Trail joins the Navajo Lake Trail about half way to the lake.

The route is mostly through meadows allowing good views of the nearby peaks. To the left is Dolores Peak at 13,290 feet.

The nearby Kilpacker Trail runs parallel to the Navajo Lake Trail for about 3 miles. The Kilpacker passes through a forested area and has an El Diente Peak side trail option for climber access. The one 14er that is clearly visible along the Navajo Lake trail is El Diente, resembling a large tooth, and topping out at 14,159 feet.

Wilderness areas are more restricted than other parts of National Forests. No mechanical or motorized vehicles allowed. This includes mountain bikes, causing some controversy among bikers. This trail would have been very tough for bikers though. Lizard Head Wilderness includes 11 mountain peaks of the San Juan Mountains higher than 11,000 feet and three are in the elite group known as the Colorado 14ers, higher that 14,000 feet.

The last part of the trail is steep and climbs as high as 11,400 feet. The Navajo Lake is surrounded on three sides by high steep mountains and it catches the snowmelt.

On the west side the overflow from the lake spills out and is the beginning of the West Fork of the Dolores River, eventually joining the main branch about 30 miles downstream. There is a waterfall that looked like it plunged about 40 feet, though I could only see it from a distance.

The Navajo Lake Trail continues past the lake to the Silver Pick Trail Head on the north. Before reaching Navajo Lake there is a trail junction leading to the Woods Lake Trail and the Elk Creek Trail, also to the north.

It took me 3:00 hours to cover the 4.8 miles from the trail head to Navajo Lake. I came back faster than I went up, making it down in 2:15. June is a good time to go up into this area. The snow is mostly melted and the summer thunderstorms haven't started yet. They caution peak baggers to be off the peak by noon, or risk getting hit by a bolt.

Galloping Goose Trail-Telluride to South Fork Road

At the Telluride end, the 21 mile Galloping Goose Trail connects with the Telluride Bike Trail, a paved bike trail that runs from in town out to the west along the San Miguel River.

I started my hike at the Junction of Highway 145 and the road into Telluride Town. This is also the starting point for the Valley Floor River Trail.The Goose Trail loses the pavement and becomes a narrow single track that continues west down stream for a ways, then turns upstream at the junction with the South Fork, the snow melt water coming down from Sunshine Mountain and Wilson Peak.

There are three of the seven original Geese preserved and on display in the area. One is in Telluride and another in Dolores. There is a small museum associated with the Goose in Dolores. The third Goose is privately owned and can be sighted along Highway 491 about a mile north of Dove Creek, Colorado between Cortez, CO and Monticello, Utah.

(In the spring of 2012 I noticed that a Galloping Goose was visible along the highway in Ridgeway, Colorado. Beginning in 2008, there has been an effort to restore Goose No. 4 with the work done in Ridgeway. The plan is to return it to Telluride.)


The first part of this segment follows the rushing river downstream and is very scenic. This bridge appears to connect to a scenic overlook high above on Highway 145.

The forest here is aspen and spruce and the river bottom area has quite a few of the Colorado state tree, the Blue Spruce. I walked the trail for about 1:15 until I came to a junction with the South Fork Road that runs along the river. To continue you have to follow a side road north for a short distance to Ilium and then get on Sunshine Road to continue south.

The route segment from the Telluride Bike Trail to Ilium is about 3.0 miles. About 3.0 miles south along Sunshine Road there will be a trail head on the left that follows an obvious section of old rail bed. The segment from Sunshine Road toward Ames is very scenic.

The San Miguel is one of the few rivers feeding the Colorado River that doesn't have a dam on it, so the river bottom area is still in a very natural state here. There are a few ranches and private homes in the valley.

As this trail is very convenient for those living or visiting Telluride, it gets a fair amount of mountain bike traffic. I was about the only hiker and I was startled several times as the speedy bikers came flying down the trail around the blind curves, causing me to dive to the side, but with a smile on my face.

Galloping Goose Trail-Trout Lake to Ames

The Galloping Goose Trail in the San Juan Mountains in southwest Colorado runs about 21 miles and follows the old rail bed of an historic train that served the area until the early 1950s.

From the scenic Lizard Head Pass the trail runs north to Trout Lake, then to Ophir, past Ames, along the south fork of the San Miguel river and connects to the Telluride Bike Trail and the Valley Floor River Trail that go into Telluride.
I started this segment at Trout Lake, that Shangri-La spot nestled below Vermillion Peak and Yellow Mountain. The trail is as wide as a road until it gets to the Matterhorn campground area, then has different segments of narrow trails and gravel roads as it gets close to the Ophir area, a historic mining town.

There are views of the San Miguel range of mountains all around. The forest here is mostly Aspen and Englemann Spruce.

The Ophir Needles is one of the outstanding views along here. After crossing the highway through a tunnel, there is a mining reclamation project to view that was completed in 2000-01. Old piles of mine tailings from the area mines have been stabilized.
The trail goes above the village of Ames which is famous as the site of the first hydro alternating current power plant in history, an obscure place for an important development.

There was a technology battle between Nikolas Tesla's AC and Thomas Edison's DC and it was here that the winner was determined. Along the trail you can see parts of the large pipe that runs from Trout Lake and Hope Lake to power the plant.

I hiked on this segment for about 1:45 hours before being turned back by rain. My total hike was about 3:30 hours. The distance from Lizard head to the tunnel under Highway 145 is about 11.5 miles.