Tour of Glacial Lakes in the Snowy Range

Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest

(map link)

I looked for a way to turn a tour of the glacial lakes below Medicine Bow into a nice overnight loop, but the loop I found came to an estimated 12 miles. A little short for an overnight in my book. With the trails that were missing on both the Forest Service topo and OpenStreetMap, I could have done it. It turns out the publication I really needed was a fishing guide which is among the many free brochures you can pick up at ranger stations. The one I visited was actually on Routt (in Walden, about 3 blocks from the library) since anything else wouldn't be open when I passed. It turns out that although they are administratively joined, that doesn't mean you can get all that much on things across the state line. There's some Motor Vehicle Use Maps until they run out. That larger loop goes over the mountain again, and I'd already done that. I also decided to try out the Circle Trail to get a little height and terrain variation and to avoid lake overload. It seemed about the same length, but I likely needn't have worried. The lakes are also varied. I parked at the Sheep Lake Trailhead, then hiked across the campground to Glacier Lakes Trailhead and found maps at both with Circle Trail not included except for a vestigial spur labeled Shelf Lakes. It isn't on the fishing guide either. I had already noticed an oddity about its representation on the FS topo that left me wondering.

00: lake and white mountain sticking up behind — Brooklyn Lake with Medicine Bow Peak behind it. The first of the glacial lakes.

01: signs and a trail across flatish meadow — Sheep Lake Trailhead where day use parking can be found. While registers are there, one didn't have a bottom and the other wouldn't keep out any weather.

02: more infromation signs and trail into the trees — Glacier Lakes Trailhead is in Brooklyn Campground and has no parking.

I headed up through the trees (sadly with a bit of beetle kill) to the first of the hiking lakes: East and West Glacier Lakes. Perhaps it's the snow field above that gets these lakes the designation Glacier Lakes out of all the other glacier lakes. Signs at the trailhead mentioned there's an ongoing science project measuring water quality of the outflow and you can see it next to the small mining dam on East Glacier Lake as you pass.

03: up through upright trees — The trees tend not to be very thick where they are at this elevation.

04: lake below — Leaving Brooklyn Lake behind.

06: sign for the lake — The lakes are signed so you can know which you've found even without a map. That is snow up there in the middle of August.

07: at the shore of a lake with snow above — East Glacier Lake.

I had taken a few feet spur to see East Glacier Lake but got another view of it from the trail on the way to West Glacier Lake. It's harder to get a good look at West Glacier Lake from the trail or even from an easy spur.

09: lake behind some tree tops — West Glacier Lake is far below trail level.

There's a few little lakes through the trees, some of them really just mud holes this time of year, as the trail rolls along to Telephone Lakes and Lost Lake. I followed trail around the edge of a rocky hill for a good view of Telephone Lakes far below, but then couldn't find any more trail for certain.

10: little water visible in a small depression — Depressions of all sizes left by the glaciers that scoured this land! The water of an unnamed pond is just visible in the bottom.

12: small water under the mountain — Another pond camouflaged by reflections of the trees below Browns Peak.

13: lake below — The eastern of the Telephone Lakes.

14: another lake below — The western of the Telephone Lakes.

I had missed the trail as it turned into the trees. Once found again (while searching quite fruitlessly for a geocache), I was on my way to Lost Lake and the suspicious Circle Trail. It kind of looked like there was trail up there when looking from Glacier Lakes, but it wasn't really in the right place.

16: lake from lake level — Lost Lake. Found!

So what's so suspicious about Circle Trail? Well, according to the map, you need a boat to actually follow it. It goes right through the middle of Lost Lake. Maybe it's lost lake because they forgot to put it on the map, but they put this trail on in something like its route. Then they threw the lake on and nobody noticed or cared enough to change the trail to a more reasonable route. I didn't bring a boat even though I had noticed this oddity and could have prepared for it. I assumed there would be a real trail around the side of the lake and found one well used one along the south side to follow to the outlet. Cairns indicated more trail on the other side. The marked trail is still much further. Those cairns were the last sign of trail for a while. I just followed along where it would be reasonable to have a trail.

17: above Lost Lake — On a nice climbing ridge southeast of Lost Lake.

18: lakes along Telephone Creek — A string of lakes along Telephone Creek.

19: lake with mountains behind — Lost Lake below Browns Peak as Medicine Bow Peak comes into view, behind and left.

As I got far enough around the lake to explore where the trail is marked, I didn't actually go over there. I was in a much more reasonable path and there was clearly no trail down there.

20: pools long below — A new view of Glacier Lakes.

My ridge sort of runs out, but I still had a nice space for walking along the hill. I only had to give it up because there was a geocache 300 feet vertical above me. Not only was it a little "lonely" and needing some signing, but the description indicates it is next to a trail. The map indicates it is next to the Circle Trail. I was willing to divert from my "where a trail should be" path to get where a trail is. It's faint, but it's true. There is a trail there. I followed it along the top to a lightning rod.

23: metal on the land — More science in the area: a lightning rod which might be the remains of a weather station.

There are a couple other geocaches up there and one of them describes the trail. It says you can follow it by starting at the Glacier Lakes Trailhead like I did, but just 200 feet along take an unsigned trail on the right to follow the ridge up. I followed this old service trail a little way down. It has tread and cairns to mark it, but it also braids a little. There are multiple versions.

24: flat land and little peaks — Browns Peak and a little of the faint, cairn marked trail that can get one halfway up it from Glacier Lakes Trailhead.

25: long, rolling topped mountains — The view east toward Laramie.

26: edge of the range — West along the more cliff-like portion of the Snowy Range.

I returned to the lightning rod and went looking for the rest of the Circle Trail. The area is very much a higher flat after the little climb up. I could at least pretend a little that there might be something there. Maybe. I found a cairn about the time I decided to wander off in a new direction for a geocache. Really, with the time I put into the geocaches, perhaps I should have gone after the top of Browns Peak.

27: lots of flat land with distant mountains — Easy travel on the high flats outside of the trees and not much harder in the taller trees.

28: Browns and Medicine Bow — Maybe there's a little bit of trail here once? Browns Peak on the left and a minor peak of Medicine Bow right of it.

I scared a group of elk and found a hunter's gear stash near the largely imaginary line of trail. I did start to find more and more of something to follow as I wandered down the hill toward the Shelf Lakes and hopefully some real trail with faster, easier travel.

29: large lake and two ponds — High above Arrowhead Lake and a couple smaller ponds. It's not as impressive a view on the north side as the south side.

30: blue, pleated flowers standing tall in short stature — Plenty of Parry's gentian among the meadows.

My faint path was getting less imaginary as it arrived at the eastern pair of Shelf Lakes. I crossed the outflow to a much clearer use trail heading off to Arrowhead Lake, I suspect.

31: long lakes head on — Trail and Shelf Lakes #4 and #3 with the flank of Browns Peak on the left, Medicine Bow Peak in the distance with an unnamed minor peak on the right.

32: wide spots in a stream — The outflow of Shelf Lakes bulges into tiny ponds on its way to Arrowhead Lake.

33: water flowing along — Shelf Lake #4 below Browns Peak from the outflow.

It was still tough going along Shelf Lakes #4 and #3, but trail got more distinct and easy to walk on the climb over the little ridge toward Shelf Lakes #2 and #1. The two pairs of lakes aren't actually connected. The two closer to the Gap Lakes definitely get a lot more visits.

35: lake in the grass — Crescent Lake from near the ridge between the pairs of Shelf Lakes.

36: lake below a rocky mountain slope — Shelf Lake #2 with a little bit of #1 visible over the thin land separation.

37: tiny ponds — Ponds below the Shelf Lakes.

38: lake below steep, rocky slopes — Shelf Lake #1 below Browns Peak.

I continued down to North Gap Lake and rejoined the more typical loop trail I might have taken with its well used tread, signs, and a few people to actually share it with.

39: more lake — North Gap Lake below Medicine Bow Peak.

41: pink flowers in the water — Queen's crown in the inflow of North Gap Lake.

Oh, and its extra trails. Something broke off to the right without a sign, maybe to hang out with Crescent Lake. Official trail doesn't get very close to that one even though it is sizable.

42: lake with a low spot of rock — North Gap Lake with The Gap behind it.

44: flat of grass with a few puddles — Once there was a large lake, but now just a few depressions remain among the happy grasses below Browns Peak and the Shelf Lakes.

46: small water flow in a big V — The Medicine Bow River just getting started.

47: lake in the hollow — Crescent Lake again.

I got to the junction with trail to Reservoir Lake, which goes all the way to a 4x4 road for access. It looked a well used trail too. I wasn't feeling too tempted to get along that way and see it rather than Cutthroat and Black Spotted Lakes up ahead.

49: blue lake among trees — Cutthroat Lake.

50: lake with reeds — Down by the water line on Cutthroat Lake.

51: lake with a small pond in front — Black Spotted Lake behind a small pond.

52: duckling riding mama's back — The little pond contained a common mersanger and a load of ducklings. After a while of watching them, they forgot about me and started swimming about and hopping onto mama's back.

Then there was the trail for Deep Lake. I was tempted by that one, but there had been too much geocaching and wasn't enough time for the extra hiking.

53: rock outcrops — Wondering if there's something more than glaciation that shaped this land.

56: water with distant peaks — Another unnamed lake with Browns Peak (left) and Medicine Bow Peak (right) behind.

Finally I made it to the Sheep Lake Trail, my route back. It came with warning signs about cyanobacteria in the lakes. It was especially disturbing since I really could have used a bit more water.

58: large lake far off and below — Sheep Lake is near the junction where I joined Sheep Lake Trail.

60: small ponds and a lake — The trail climbed and revealed more and more ponds around Sheep Lake.

61: trail on a long slope — Trail climbs to get over the foot of Browns Peak.

62: lakes below a knoll of rock — Lakes at the head of South Fork Rock Creek with Rock Creek Knoll rising behind them.

I started meeting fishermen out for the evening. The first seemed to be evaluating, then passing up what would be the best lake for a few miles from the trailhead.