Blue Lakes is one of the most popular hikes near Telluride, if not all of Colorado. If we catch wind of glacial blue alpine lakes with trout in them, we’d probably be down for the hike. This hike is extremely trafficked for good reason, and while we enjoyed the beautifully blue lakes and would recommend this hike, we’ll probably opt for less busy hikes in the area next time.
For our first time in the Telluride area, we couldn’t turn down the promise of strikingly glacial blue lakes with trout that call them home. So despite its popularity, we couldn’t say no to the classic Blue Lakes hike. We decided to do the this hike on our travel day from Silverton to Telluride, so we started our drive 6 AM in order to get to the trailhead early enough to secure a parking spot. Luckily, we were able to get one of the few spots left in the lot at around 7:30 AM; most of the cars seemed to be backpackers which doesn’t leave very many spots for day hikers.
The trailhead is is located 9 miles down a dirt road off Highway 62. Most of the road is in good shape but the last few miles do have quite a few pot holes. The trail to the lowest Blue Lake is 3.2 miles with 1650 feet of elevation gain, and if you feel up to it, climbs all the way up to the top of the Dallas Divide and Mount Sneffels. The best views are at about 3.8 miles / 2000 ft elevation gain between the Lower and Middle Lake, and we’d definitely recommend going at least that far.
The first part of the hike follows the East Fork Dallas Creek and you can get a few peeks at the crystal clear water as it tumbles down the valley. After this, the hike is a little boring as it steadily climbs up the valley through the forest. The slope is very moderate, but the thick forest blocks any possibility of views. The most interesting part were the magnificent groves of aspen that line the entire Dallas divide, we can see why this area is so popular in the fall when they turn gold.
At 1.7 miles the hike becomes a bit more interesting. There’s a little creek that we hopped across, then the trail goes into an open meadow where there is finally a view of Mount Sneffels.
After traversing through an old avalanche path, once again the views open up. We were both awestruck at the jagged mountains that framed the Blue Lakes valley. It looked like the lakes should be just over that next ridge and that gave us the shot of energy we needed after a mostly uneventful hike through the trees.
In the final section of the trail there is a very nice view of a waterfall and a meadow. The lake really is just over this hill.
Between the waterfall and the lake we must have passed 4 or 5 different groups of backpackers each with their own campsite set off from the trail. We passed by the trail to the upper Blue Lakes and continued to the outlet, where we were met with a stunning glacial lake in its own little cirque.
We rigged up the fly rods and attempted to catch some of the cutthroat that were supposed to inhabit the lake. After an hour of zero hits but a couple fish spotted (and watching someone else catch a fish) we decided to head up to the middle lake before the afternoon thunderstorms rolled in. We didn’t want to get caught in a thunderstorm above tree line again!
The trail up to middle Blue Lake is the steepest part of the entire hike. Struggling up this steep section at 11,000+ feet really put our lungs to work, but the most stunning views of the entire hike are absolutely from this ridge.
Like most steep climbs the best view comes at the top and it did not disappoint. From this vantage it is easy to see why the lowest Blue Lake has so much glacial flour. There are a couple creeks that flow off the north side of 13,809 ft Dallas peak through what look to be moraine fields from previous glaciers and into the lake below.
At this point we turned our focus to the middle lake to see if we could convince any of the fish in that lake to eat our flies.
The middle lake doesn’t have any glacial flour, so once we approached the shore we could see rings on the surface as well as fishing cruising in the crystal clear water.
We both switched our rods to a dry fly and we immediately started picking up fish. They weren’t as big in this lake but they were much more active!
The interesting thing about being down on the shore of the middle lake was we could hear all of the people walking the trail up towards Blue Lakes Pass because their voices would echo down to the lake. It was around noon at this point and the steady stream of people was astounding for a couple reasons. First, we can’t believe that many people make the trek up the mountain (for the gram, probably). And second, nasty clouds were beginning to form, and being at 14,000 ft in a thunderstorm sounds pretty dangerous.
After eating lunch and catching a few more fish, we headed back down to the lower lake in case the clouds did start popping.
We attempted to catch the picky fish in the lower lake one more time, but to no avail. We were stuck watching some lunkers cruise the shore. After another hour, we decided to make our way down the trail before the rain really started (we did overhear several people on the way down say the bailed on summiting Sneffels due to the weather).
We can absolutely see why the Blue Lakes hike is on every “Top Telluride Trail to Hike” and even “Top Colorado Hikes” list. The lakes are stunning and they even have fish! Though the amount of day hikers and backpackers was really overwhelming. We did do this hike on Friday so many backpackers were probably going in for the weekend, and if we were to ever do this hike again, we’d definitely opt for a weekday. Crowds aside, seeing Blue Lakes was definitely one of the highlights of our weeklong Colorado road trip!
Ice Lakes Basin vs Blue Lakes Hike
We’ve seen a lot of people researching comparing (including us, prior to our trip) the Ice Lakes Basin hike vs the Blue Lakes hike, so thought we’d throw in our two cents. If someone were to ask us: “If you only had time to hike either Ice Lakes Basin or Blue Lakes, which would you do?” Our answer would be: Ice Lakes Basin, hands down. The Ice Lake & Island Lake loop hike itself is much more scenic in its entirety – you don’t spend a considerable amount of time in the trees with nothing to look at but trees. The hike from Island Lake to Ice Lake is one of the most scenic (and to us this means expansive views) stretches of trail we’ve ever hiked. While the Lower Blue lake is absolutely stunning, the middle and upper lakes are much less remarkable. Whereas both Island and Ice Lakes were very uniquely beautiful (Ice Lake is possibly the bluest lake we have ever seen). So in summary, while it was one of the hardest hikes we have ever done, we absolutely recommend the Ice Lakes Basin hike as our “must do” hike in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains.
