Crater Lake is a very scenic place in the Rockies that is unusual in being much easier to get in to than to get out from.

This was part of a trip with RC to the Pagosa Springs area that involved a bit of day-hiking at Chimney Rock National Monument, the Windy Pass Trail, and the West Fork Trail while camped at the West Fork Campground (USFS), then culminating in a one-night backpacking trip to Crater Lake.

Even though we were at about 8000′ it was getting miserably hot in the afternoons and put a big damper on our activities. The West Fork Trail was especially disappointing as it began with a 2-mile road walk then left us in an area that burned a few years ago and had no shade. No fun when the temps are 90+. It also rained most afternoons to ensure the humidity didn’t get too low.

Okay, enough complaining! The Crater Lake trail head is about 20 miles south of US-160 on FR 380 (which was in surprisingly good condition). You turn south from US-160 just a bit east of the Park Creek Campground (east side of Wolf Creek Pass). The hike is well-described in Donna Ikenberry’s Hiking Colorado’s Weminuche and South San Juan Wilderness Areas.

The Crater Lake trail head is at about 11600′ and the trail begins with a 500′ climb over the continental divide, joining the CDT and then departing from it about 0.6 miles later. From the high point the trail descends to the lake at about 10900′. The climb out is more work but at least we were a bit better acclimated to the altitude and had lighter packs.

On arriving at the lake we encountered 3 or 4 others who had been fishing but were leaving so we had the whole place to ourselves. We camped at the outlet area. There are said to be good sites at the head end of the lake as well but it looked like we would have to climb over a lot of down timber to get up there so we didn’t do it. Temperatures here were positively delightful, and we were happy. A mule deer grazed all around our camp site through the evening, often within 20′ of us.

If one were to try hiking around the lake there are a couple spots on the west side that would be pretty dicey. I decided if I’m ever back there and have more time I would hike up the creek at the head end of the lake and and west around the back side of the lower peaks to see what they are hiding. Scaling 13090′ Montezuma Peak would also be interesting.

On the way out we encountered 5 groups of people coming in – 4 of them just there for the day. It’s not exactly a secret spot but well worth it if you’re in the area.