Hello, dearest readers! This is Skyler writing to you once again, back to deliver on a promise I made in my last post. I mentioned there that Tyler and I had embarked on a glorious hike to Beartrack Lakes (which I had misnamed as Beartracks Lake; sorry!) in the Mt. Evans Wilderness area, but the adventure went uncovered in our blog because of tricky timing around Tyler’s egress from Colorado.

That was our first excursion to this area back in early August of 2021. Since then I have returned to Beartrack Lakes twice, and the photography I will share for this entry will be drawn from all three trips. My second outing was in June of this year and my latest outing was a little over a week ago.

The Beartrack Lakes trail shares the same trailhead as the Beaver Meadows trail, which I detailed in my previous post. I will make mention again that this trailhead is in the Mt. Evans State Wildlife area, which requires a special permit to access, and is actually closed to public access beginning this weekend and continuing through June 14th, 2023. The trail starts with a small downhill stretch before gently following Bear Creek through large stands of pine trees.

A bridge welcomes adventurers to cross over Bear Creek and begin heading uphill after about a half-mile of hiking.

As the uphill gradually commences—a teaser of what’s to come—explorers find themselves entering the Beartracks burn area, a 485-acre scorch left from the blistering Beartracks Fire of 1998.

The trail continues southeast and crosses from the state wildlife area into the designated wilderness another half-mile beyond the bridge over Bear Creek.

The signed boundary is a great place to take a hydration break because the mile to follow is an ass-kicker: it climbs five-hundred relentless vertical feet before cresting a saddle. Though a first-timer likely wouldn’t realize they were looking at it then, that crest, the two prominent high points of its saddle, and the steep elevation gain are all visible from that signed boundary.

This portion of the hike is simply wonderful despite the strenuousness. The landscape’s natural recovery from the wildfire is spectacular. Among the skeletal remains of the charred trees spring effusions of verdancy. Timing-wise, our early August venture last year proved to be the best for bountiful bouquets of wildflowers, reams of ripe wild raspberries, and a myriad of mycological specimens.

Some downhill feels most welcome after the trail reaches the highpoint on the saddle around two miles in and exits the burn area.

Gentler rolling terrain surrounded predominately by spruce-fir forest continues for approximately another mile.

The respite from the uphill is only temporary, and when the trail steepens once again, it passes by two junctions for the Cub Creek trail. It’s the easternmost of these junctions that connect the Beartrack Lakes trail to the Beaver Meadows Trail and Resthouse Meadows Trail, which I mentioned in my previous post. 

Shortly after this junction, more skeletal trees reappear along the trail, but they are not victims of a wildfire. Rather, there was a major “blowdown event” that took place about a decade ago, which required substantial trail maintenance to clear out.

Then, five gorgeous miles beyond the trailhead and only about half a mile away from the largest of the Beartrack Lakes, there is a final trail junction. It is here where my current excursion’s path diverges from that of the prior two adventures. Aspiring this time for some extra credit, my narrative also diverged from the prior two outings, and I headed south on the Roosevelt Lakes Trail.

Immediately after the junction, the Roosevelt Lakes trail headed sharply uphill.

I was in dire need of an extended hydration and snack break less than a mile after the junction. The uphill felt endless, and reaching the junction alone had already entailed over two thousand feet of elevation gain. The trail continued then to turn toward the southwest briefly as it rose above timberline and wrapped around the northwestern flank of Rosalie Peak.

The grade leveled out after a little over a mile, and eventually the Roosevelt Lakes came into view as the trail snaked back southeast. 

I would have loved to to have spent more time at these alpine lakes, but previously unseen and unforecasted dark, threatening storm clouds began to roll east over the Mt. Evans massif. I made a quick loop around the lakes, snapped as many pictures as I could make time for, and shortly thereafter began my descent back to the trail junction.

Whereas it had taken me maybe an hour and a half to reach the Roosevelt Lakes from the junction (including my extended break), the way back down only took about 45 minutes.

Back at the junction, I proceeded to head west again along the previously traveled path, and made quick work of the final half mile to the largest of the Beartrack Lakes. I spent maybe ten minutes trying to take pictures of the lake before a deafening crack of thunder roared above.

Hail began to pelt the ground and I was forced to take shelter under a rock. I make mention of this to call out that the majority of the pictures of the lake shown in this entry were actually taken during my previous two outings to Beartrack Lakes.

I spent maybe thirty minutes hunched over in an awkward position under the rock waiting out the storm.

At this point I had already hiked over ten miles and was ready to call it a day. It continued to sprinkle even when the hailstorm ceased, and I elected to put my camera equipment safely away from the drizzle in my backpack. Below is the last picture I took on this latest excursion.

But… here are more pictures taken on the way down from the two previous adventures! Is it obvious I had my macro lens in tow for one of the other outings? Just kidding!

This area is a favorite of mine. This particular adventure had entailed fifteen-and-a-half arduous miles and had been worth every single step. This entry-point to the Mt. Evans Wilderness doesn’t serve much in the way of other blog-worthy destinations, but I imagine I will come back again and again, regardless. Thank you so much for reading, and have a wonderful weekend!