Lizard Head Trail to Wilson Meadows

The Lizard Head Trail crosses through the eastern part of the mountainous Lizard Head Wilderness Area in southwest Colorado south of Telluride along Highway 145.

From the trail head at Lizard Head Pass, at 10,250 feet, the route starts north, cuts west behind Black Face Mountain and then north again. About 1.5 miles along the trail, a side trail descends into a basin area called Wilson Meadows. It is about a 6 mile round trip to visit this scenic spot.

The Wilson Meadows Trail runs more or less parallel with the Lizard head Trail. In late June there was still too much snow in the spruce forest to follow the Lizard head Trail to its junction with the Cross Mountain Trail and make a loop hike. The Lizard Head Peak is 13,113 feet.

The first mile of the Lizard Head Trail heads north to a point that overlooks Trout Lake through the aspen, spruce and fir forest. The trail then has several switchbacks giving higher and better views. There are several scree slopes on the west side of the trail. The road that runs along the north side of Trout Lake is part of the Galloping Goose Trail, a 21 mile route from Lizard Head Pass to Telluride that follows the old railroad grade.

At about the 2 mile point there is a trail sign pointing left and down and unlikely clay hill. From above it doesn’t appear that the trail could possibly go this way, but it does. This is about 20 minutes of hiking before arriving at Wilson Meadows. I’ve followed what appears to be the more likely trail straight ahead and it leads to a sloping meadow area that is scenic but not as good as Wilson Meadows.

Wilson Meadows receives snowmelt from many directions and is soggy in the bottoms area, and rich with wildflowers. The area is a basin surrounded by peaks on all sides. The peaks to the immediate northwest of Lizards Head aren’t named on the map I had but are about 12,000 to 13,000 feet high. Wilsons Creek drains the meadows, flowing to the north.

This might be San Bernardo Mountain on the north side at 11,861 feet. It took me about 2:00 hours to arrive at Wilson Meadows where I lingered for about 1:00 hour.

My return hike took 1:30 hours for a total hike of 4:30 hours. I carried two liters of water on a June day that was about 55 F when I started at 9:00 AM and 68 F at 1:30 PM. It was a clear day with some wind gusts in the exposed spots.