We're ready for a challenging hike to Lake Ann

We're way behind in getting travel posts published because we were having way too much fun traveling! So we won't be confused about when each "wandering" happened, we'll start each blog with its actual date.

August 7, 2023

We were ready for a challenging hike, so we picked one from the long list of hikes in this area around Buena Vista, Colorado. We headed to the Lake Ann trail head, which was a 23-mile drive away from our campground. The last 12 miles was on CR 390, a bumpy rutted road that made us glad we had a 4x4 pickup. But that road wound through some scenic views of the Sawatch Mountains.

The gravel road went from bad to worse, and Denisa finally insisted that we park the pickup and hike the rest of the way to the trail head. Mark thought the pickup could make it, but one of us to had to have some sense in this family! As we walked the road that Mark wanted to drive, Denisa got some pictorial evidence that it was the right decision.

The Lake Ann trail was supposed to be 7.2 miles long, with 1,374 feet of elevation gain. That would be a challenging hike. But since we had to hike uphill for almost two miles to the trailhead, it became even more challenging. Once we were actually on the trail, we entered the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness of the San Isabel National Forest.

It's called the Collegiate Peaks because the biggest peaks were named for famous universities. We've seen Mount Princeton, Mount Harvard, Mount Yale . . . With eight 14ers in the Collegiate Peaks, it possesses the highest average elevation of any wilderness area in the lower 48 states. Another group of mountains known as "The Apostles" were peaking out over the pine trees as we hiked.

We started the hike at 10,500 feet in elevation, so it was cool even in early August. After a challenging hike up the trail, we arrived at Lake Ann at 2:00 in the afternoon. 

Denisa didn't sleep well last night, so she decided that this was a great place for a little nap. The ground was soft and sloped and made a nice bed for a little snoozing on the shore of the lake.

While she was napping, Mark was hiking around Lake Ann. He added another half-mile to this already lengthy hike.

He hiked half-way around the lake and up to the snow for different views of Lake Ann. We have wandered into another of God's wonders!

This is a great place to stop and camp for the hundreds of hikers that will complete the Colorado Trail this summer. In fact, one hiker told us that she thought this was the prettiest place on the entire 567-mile-long Colorado Trail. She was setting up camp to enjoy the views of that pristine blue-green water overnight.

From the lake, we also had views of Mount Huron. This massive mountain is 14,012 feet high, and we were thinking about hiking it later in the month. We could see from its bare mountain peak that much of the hike would be above tree-line. Hikers have to start in the dark of early morning to try to get to the summit, and then back off that exposed peak before the afternoon storms turn them into lightning rods.

After lingering at Lake Ann, we headed back down the trail towards home. Much of our trail overlapped with the Colorado Trail and the Continental Divide Trail. We have come to recognize these two trail insignias because we have seen them many times this summer. 

We met ten different Colorado Trail hikers--six women and four men. Most of them were hiking solo, and glad to visit with other wanderers. These hikers just made it over Hope Pass, and they were headed towards Ann Pass. So this is an arduous, but beautiful part of the trail. Most hikers allow five weeks to make the 567-mile trek, but one girl was taking seven weeks. She had the journey plotted at 11.6 miles per day, but she had to hike further if she ever wanted a rest day. 

While we would hike close to her average this day, we were feeling the elevation. We must say that most of the long-haul hikers we met on the trail didn't look like they were having much fun on this beautiful day. It was lots of work!

When we got back to the trail head, we still had another two miles to get to the pickup. Mark was pointing to the rocky road, indicating that we should have driven further. Denisa still thinks that we made the right decision to not put the pickup (and its passengers) through this section. 

We finished up with 11.2 miles on this hike--four miles further than we had planned for this challenging hike. We had wanted to come back to this same trail head to hike to the top of Huron Peak just to say we had done a 14er. But now that we know how bad the road was, and that we must add another four miles to an already strenuous hike, and drive a rough gravel road twelve miles, and arrive at 4 a.m. for a 14er hike . . . So we probably won't be back to this trail head to hike to Huron Peak. But we're glad that we came here once for our day in the Collegiate Peak Wilderness with our challenging hike to Lake Ann!