Lake Katherine Trail, Mt. Zirkel Wilderness Area, CO on July 8, 2005

Posted January 28, 2007

The Mount Zirkel Wilderness area is situated along the continental divide in northern Colorado. Just west of Walden, CO. Or, if the metropolis of Walden is a place you have not heard about, the wilderness area is just east of Steamboat Springs, CO. It is a 2.5 hour drive to get to the Mt. Zirkel wilderness from Fort Collins, CO. Which means that in the summer you can leave Fort Collins after work on a Friday and easily make a trailhead camp before dark. Perfect.

Before I go any further in the trip’s description, here is my standard comment. Please check my photo galleries here for all the larger and higher quality photos for this trip. In addition, you can view a topo map of the Lake Katherine TH here and a topo map here that shows where the trail contiues up to the continental divide. A Google Earth map can be found here (you may need to adjust the scale bar on the left side of the Google map). All links open a new browser window.

I need to make a couple of things clear first. One thing is that getting to the trailheads for this wilderness area can be a little tricky. This is because some of them are only approachable using access roads through private ranch land.

What this translates to is that you have to have a map and be careful about following any and all signs that might point you to the correct place. That said, this does help ensure (I think) the rather under-utilization of a very pretty wilderness area. Actually, its very pretty even before you get into the wilderness area itself. The Routt National Forest around the trailhead (and in the surrounding area) can provide many hours of great hiking without ever stepping into the Mt. Zirkel wilderness itself. Here is a crude panorama of the Mt. Zirkel wilderness area as I was leaving Walden, CO to “find” the trailhead.

The other issue is that, well, ummm, I never made it to Lake Katherine : ) What happened is I got going on the trail and it was so pretty that I decided to bypass Lake Katherine itself and continue all the way up to the continental divide. Darn, that means I’ll have to go back some time just to see Lake Katherine.

Hmmm. I think I should add that my decision to change plans is not something I would ever recommend someone doing. That is, you should have a specific destination in mind, let someone know what that destination is, and then stick with it. Otherwise, if you change your destination and have an accident, then it will be difficult to locate your new position by your friends, the forest service, or whoever. While I did see that forest service trail crew, they were the only other people I saw the entire time on the trail.

As I stated, this area is situated just west of Walden, CO. I find particular pleasure in this due to the fact that Walden itself is such a neat place to visit. Situated in North Park (a rather large area surrounded by moutains), with the majority of people involved in ranching, the town is a great place to wind down from the hustle and bustle of cities. A person who wished to have a enjoyable vacation could do worse than to get a motel room in Walden and take day trips to the various surrounding mountains. There is fishing, hiking, wildlife (moose : ), and kayak/rafting in the area. Great place. Here is a photo looking back at Walden.

Anyway, I wound my way through the back roads until I “found” the Lake Katherine trailhead. Hay season was in full motion, the pastures and meadows were all green, and there were very few people. I got to the trailhead within a couple of hours of sunset so there was time to walk around and enjoy the scenary before it got dark. Lots of beaver ponds made for lots of ducks and small wildlife activity, but also allowed for a nice environment for mosquitos. Not too bad, but most people will be happy to put on a little repellent. I normally just use clothing to cover my skin in case of mosquitos.

Got up the next morning and started up the trail. The trail does climb (obviously, since you end up on top of the continental divide), but it’s a very pleasant gain in altitude. I think you start at approximately 9,000 feet in elevation at the TH, and end up around 11,000 feet on the divide. But, thats spread over 3-4 miles with only the last half mile or so being a steep pitch. Anyway, the trail winds through lots of meadows.

At the time of my hike, the flowering season was in full swing and it was hard to keep my mind on the trail.

On the way up the trail, fairly close to the middle of the last steep pitch, I passed a forest service trail crew working on the trail. They told me that they only get to each trail about once every 3 years (due to budget constraints). I found the trail to be very well kept and easy walking.

Up on top, the above timberline meadows were a relatively solid carpet of flowers. I tried being selective of my photos, but finally gave up and just pointed the camera everywhere to get a photo. It really was incredible. The weather was very nice, warm with only a slight breeze. It’s worth noting that I was lucky that we had a mild winter and early summer. Otherwise, this would have all been covered with snow at this time of the year. So, if you are planning a trip to this area you may want to time it differently than me depending on the snow pack. And, as always, keep an eye on the weather since it can change rapidly. The top of the continental divide is normally not a good place to be caught in a storm.

I took a late lunch break, took photos of the surrounding moutains (including the forest service crew in the distance as they were inspecting the surrounding area), took way too many flower pictures,

and then decided it was time to head back to my truck. It was a difficult decision to head back down, but I like to get back to town prior to dark if possible. And, even though the temperature had been quite mild, I knew that the temperatures would start dropping as the sun went down. With the breeze on top of the lowering temperatures, it would get chilly real fast. For some reason, the hike back down the trail went much faster than coming up. Go figure : )

All in all, an outstanding hike in some very pretty country. I look forward to coming back again.

– Geoff Weatherford