NAVAJO LAKE HIKE
August 26, 2006
By Tim Briese
Navajo Lake lies in the scenic Lizard Head Wilderness in a deep valley ringed by high peaks, including the 14ers Mt. Wilson and El Diente. I read about this hike in Scott Warren=s book A 100 Hikes in Colorado@ and knew it was a place I wanted to visit sometime.
I slept in the back of my truck the night before the hike, at a pull-off in the woods along the Dunton Road about a quarter mile south of the trailhead. I had done a short hike up to nearby Geyser Spring the evening before. I was on my way home from a trip to Arizona and wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to enjoy some hiking in the beautiful San Juans. Rain and lightning occurred through much of the night, and heavy, low clouds hung in the air when I drove to the trailhead early in the morning. I had considered doing a mountain climb today, but with such poor weather I quickly concluded that was a bad idea, at best. For a while I wondered if even a hike to the lake were well-advised.
After waiting at the trailhead for a little while I spotted a tiny patch of blue sky drifting in from the southwest, and that was enough to convince me to give it a try. At 7:10 I left the trailhead and began hiking up the trail with my lab Jorie. I set a very rapid pace because of the uncertain weather and because I had a seven hour drive home awaiting me later that day. I followed a nice trail up a scenic valley along West Dolores Creek, doing my best to navigate around or through numerous muddy and slippery spots from all the rain the night before. After three-fourths of a mile I crossed the swollen creek on a fine bridge that appeared to be quite new. My guidebook said a ford would be required here and I was glad to discover that this was no longer the case.
Beyond this point the trail climbed gradually into an area of scenic meadows, where I was afforded a nice view of El Diente to the northeast when the sun partially broke through the low clouds for a few minutes. After passing through a half mile or more of gentle meadows the trail began to switchback up a wooded slope for a while. At 8:30 a strong rainshower rolled in, accompanied by the morning=s first rumble of thunder.
The trail turned to the east and I began to climb vigorously up a headwall in the valley, gaining about a thousand feet in a mile. A fine waterfall spilling over a cliff was visible some distance away to the right. The trail climbed up the left side of the valley through a cliff band to a trail junction at 11,230', then descended slightly over the final half mile to the lake.
I saw the tents of several backpackers scattered about in the woods as I neared the lake. One group was just packing up to leave. I reached the shore of the lake at 9:15, having hiked over four and a half miles with 2000 feet of elevation gain from the trailhead in just over two hours. The fine lake, about 200 yards long, was set in a pretty basin right at timberline. I saw Gladstone Peak through misty clouds up at the head of the valley, with a little fresh snow lying upon its slopes. El Diente was up in the clouds high above to the right. I saw three hikers going up a trail beyond the lake, heading up higher into the basin. I thought they were probably on their way to attempt a mountain climb, and I hoped for the best for them, because it was a very nasty day to climb!
Another rainshower moved in while I stood on the shore of the lake, and I watched the pelting raindrops splash vigorously upon the surface of the water. A clap of thunder rocked the air, then another, and I turned and began back down the trail, after spending less than ten minutes at the lake. I hustled rapidly along, and gradually began to pass a party of about ten backpackers strung out over several hundred yards, going down the trail. I was amazed at how fast they were going! They were the strongest group of backpackers I had ever seen. They were college students from Gunnison who had backpacked in to attempt El Diente and Mt. Wilson that morning, but after a miserable night of hail and rain they gave up and were leaving because of the nasty weather. I hiked along with the group leader for a mile or two, at an incredibly fast pace, and had a nice chat with him. He was an employee at the college who had taken the students out on this expedition. He had climbed most of the 14ers before but many in the party were novice mountain climbers. After a while I decided I simply couldn=t keep up with him anymore, even though he was the one carrying a heavy backpack, so I said goodbye and let him fly on ahead!
Another thundershower moved in and made the trail a bit muddier than it already was. At 10:50 I returned to the trailhead, having covered nine and a half miles in three and a half hours on this hike. It was indeed a fine hike in a scenic place. I had no regrets at all about the marginal weather, because wilderness splendor manifests itself in different ways in any conditions, rain or shine.
