Completed on July 9, 2024

This turned out to be one of my favorites in the Silverton area. The forest, the meadow with the wild flowers, the panoramic view and the crystal clear alpine lake. It had it all.

Because the trailhead is on a Jeep/OHV trail I parked in a bottom of the hill, below 550/Million Dollar Highway. It added about 9/10 of a mile on both end of the hike/run. It turned out to be a good decision, the road going up to the trail head had a few knarley sections that I could of made it through, but……

The first mile or so goes up, up ,up, with about bunch of switch backs (switchback = steep), but opens up into this beautiful meadow that was full of wild flowers. It continues up for another mile or so on a trail thats fairly steep, but the reward at the top is a panoramic view of the San Juan Mountains. After this the trail rolls up and down up to the lake with more stunning panoramic views along the way.

Arriving at the lake was quite the reward, it is crystal clear, blue and torquiest with small snow covered ridgeline as a back drop. It was quite beautiful.

It is well worth the effort to get there.

I enjoyed the trip back down. I was able to run quite a bit of the way. The last 2 miles it was more like a controlled fall, just me and my friend gravity going down, down, down.

Full video and write up on YouTube: https://youtu.be/GuErCRBkz9c

Garmin Stats: (These are approximate, my watch died at the lake)

Miles: 9.46 (15.22k)

Time to Summit: 2:32

Time back to the truck: 1:38

Total Time: 4:29

Elevation Gain: 2901ft (884m)

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