Ice Lake Trail (Colorado)

The Low Down

Scenery above the upper basin

The Ice Lake Trail reaches scenic high country in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado. It is excellent as a day hike, and provides a good base camp for climbs of high Thirteeners above its upper reaches.

Getting There

From Silverton, drive two miles north on US 550 to the turnoff (on the left) for South Mineral Campground. Follow this excellent, graded dirt road for a bit over four miles to the campground, and park at the lot on the right. The trailhead is obvious at the upper end of the parking lot.

By the way, note that the standard guidebook for this area (see below), while generally well written and accurate, mistakenly tells you to drive six miles on the South Mineral road. If you do this, you'll go too far and will miss the trailhead. It's an easy mistake to make, as the road remains good for some distance past the campground, somewhat anomalously for national-forest access roads in this area.

Route Finding

The excellent quality of the well-constructed trail and clear marking of the trailhead will suggest to you that route finding here is straightforward, and in the main, it is. However, a seductive route-finding trap awaits you only half a mile or so along the trail.

The waterfall. Do not take the faint trail alongside it!

After leaving the road and switchbacking a short distance up the side of the ridge, you'll come to a stream crossing just below a spectacular waterfall/cascade. On the other side of the stream, the trail continues down around a corner and out of sight, as though heading back down to the road in the valley. On the side you've come up on, a trail of sorts follows the stream up toward the waterfall. Do not take this uphill "trail!" It heads into a steep band of scree and peters out, leaving you nowhere to go! Instead, cross the stream (logs set over the water should make this easy) and go down on the good trail; after only about 100 horizontal feet (but out of sight of the stream crossing), it reveals itself as your route upward and resumes switchbacking its way into the next drainage to the south. Incidentally, a few switchbacks later, it arrives at the top of the cascade that you've avoided; you'll see the remains of an old bridge right at the foot of the waterfall and an equally rudimentary trail heading in the general direction of the scree slope, but the most cursory inspection will tell you that you didn't really want to be on that trail, and also that the bridge is now downright dangerous, particularly at high water.

From here the route really is obvious and straightforward as it climbs toward the lower of the two Ice Lake basins. You enter the lower basin at timberline, following the trail along the right-hand side of the basin. Several lesser stream crossings have to be negotiated here, but none pose serious problems, although you may have to get your feet wet (check the footing and current carefully). Your objective is an obvious trail cut diagonally across the headwall separating this basin from the higher, more scenic one. The headwall section has one rocky stretch with some exposure, but nothing too threatening; check your footing carefully and avoid the edge and you'll be OK. More switchbacks take you to the entrance to the upper basin and your destination, beautiful Ice Lake itself.

Trail Resources

This trail is plenty attractive in its own right, but what makes it particularly special are the opportunities at trail's end. The upper Ice Lake basin is surrounded by no fewer than five distinct summits above 13,700 feet: Fuller Peak (13,761'), Vermilion Peak (13,894'), Golden Horn (13,780'), Pilot Knob (13,738') and US Grant Peak (13,767'), making the basin both a tremendous showcase for mountain scenery, and a fine backpacking base camp for the "peak bagger." (Note, however, that some of these peaks aren't for the novice, notably Pilot Knob, which is considered one of the most difficult "high Thirteeners" in Colorado.) Campsites abound in both basins; the ones in the upper basin are more scenic and nearer the summits, while sites in the lower basin have the advantage of firewood nearby. In addition, Fuller Lake and Island Lake are easily reached from the upper basin and are also beautiful, with their own camping opportunities en route to Fuller Peak and US Grant Peak, respectively.

Helpful Hints

• The best hiking season is from late June until late September. The upper reaches of the trail will be snowpacked earlier, and you may have to negotiate brief snowy sections even in July; a walking stick is handy in these spots.
• The trail crosses a number of streams, so you shouldn't have any problems finding water, except possibly late in the season. Water quality is likely to be good, but purifying the water is still recommended, as Giardia parasites can pop up in almost any Colorado wilderness water.
• Camping at South Mineral Campground and along the access road is good, but these campsites are heavily used during the summer and you may have difficulty finding something satisfactory. For a more sybaritic night before your hike, stay in the pleasant little town of Silverton.

Activities Allowed

Hiking, backpacking, mountaineering. Horses are allowed in principle, but the terrain between upper and lower basins is not well suited to horse traffic. Snowshoeing and winter camping are also allowed in principle, but not only the trail but also the access road are exposed to some avalanche hazard, and the access road will almost certainly be closed for most of the winter, forcing a long approach.

For More Information

• Paul Pixler, Hiking Trails of Southwestern Colorado, Second Edition, ISBN 0-87108-816-9 (1992). A more recent edition of this excellent guidebook may be available by now, and the distance-measurement error cited above may have been corrected.

Related WikiOutdoors articles