Kilpacker Trail

Kilpacker Trail is an alternate route leading to Navajo Lake from the south side of the Lizard Head Wilderness, near Telluride in southwest Colorado.

The Navajo Lake Trail head is about 1.2 miles to the west. The two trails run parallel to the north for about three miles. The Kilpacker Trail provides access to the Kilpacker Creek Basin for those attempting to climb El Diente, at 14,159 feet, one of the Colorado 14ers. El Diente is a tooth shaped peak just to the north of Mt. Wilson, also a 14er.

I started my hike about 1.5 miles east of the trail head, to view the wide expanse of The Meadows. Continuing on the first section of the Kilpacker Trail gives a longer view of this spectacular area.

The trail is mostly through thick spruce and fir forest with occasional views of Dolores Peak to the west. The nearby Navajo Lake Trail travels more through open meadows and the mountains are more visible. After about one hour and about 2.3 miles, I arrived at Kilpacker Creek.

A little before the creek I noticed a sign and a trail to the right that said "El Diente Peak Route". This is the route that climbers take up the basin to get into position to climb the "Big Tooth".

The Kilpacker Creek had a small waterfall in the vicinity of the trail crossing. There wasn't an easy way to cross the creek without getting my feet wet.
I back tracked from the falls to the El Diente Peak Route and followed that route for 15 minutes uphill until it also reached the Kilpacker Creek.

There was a better glimpse of El Diente here. Looking at some climbers reports on El Diente later, I saw that there are two waterfalls further up the basin.

My hike on Kilpacker was about 1:00 hours to the Creek, another 0:30 to go up and back the climbers route, and another 1:00 back to the trail head for a total of 2:15. I spent an additional 1:00 hour walking along the Meadows road as part of the same hike.

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.