Colorado Trail day 12
July 06, 2026
John made oatmeal for us then John and Norma drove us through the very smoky town of Leadville. The smoke was thick north and continuing several miles to the south of the town, but was somewhat less as we turned off to the Interlaken trailhead.
We thanked them again for all their hospitality and help and said our farewells, then started hiking at 9:15. The trail follows the south side of the Twin Lakes (actually reservoirs) for several miles, more or less flat. We put on our N95 masks after half a mile or so because of the smoke.
After a couple miles the trail arrives at a decision point: either Collegiate East, the original Colorado Trail route, or Collegiate West which is a bit longer but more scenic (because the trail is higher).
Near the area between the two lakes the trails make a web of interconnecting routes that all basically continue in the same direction. The official Colorado Trail was closed due to dangerous trees and the detour was one of the other trails. That trail took us to a group of historic buildings which were from the Inter-Laken resort. We went into the Dexter House, the owner’s home. Lots of restoration work has been done and it has beautiful woodwork inside.
While we explored inside and climbed up into the little cupola upstairs a boat arrived with a small tour group to see the buildings. One of the guys was suffering from the smoke and asked if we had any extra masks. I gave him one of a few paper surgical masks I’d brought.
We stopped after another mile or so to eat some leftover pizza. The smoke seemed lighter so we stopped wearing masks. After another mile plus we got to the trail junction to start the climb to Hope Pass.
In four miles the trail climbs 3200 feet from 9300 to 12500. This was some tough going and we took several breaks. We stopped at around 11000 to make a late lunch of almond butter, peanuts, and dried fruit in a tortilla after some snack breaks and accidentally dropped one of our carefully counted tortillas in the dirt- oops!
We each listened to our own audiobooks for a good portion of the hike, first because walking along the lakes felt like a lot of very similar terrain, and then to help ease the time while we slowly climbed up the steep hill.
There is a small lake in a bowl near timberline around 11800. The data book says there are campsites here, and we arrived around 4:00. We dropped our packs and spent some time trying to find a good site but got frustrated. The only nice site was quite a hike down off the trail from where we left our packs. We ended up deciding to just walk over the pass and camp on the other side. The good thing about the wandering around was that lots of marmots were also wandering around and looking cute.
It was only 700 feet further up to the pass, but it was a real grind. From near the top we could see back to the Twin Lakes, and even to Turquoise Lake where the Willow forest fire started, through the haze. There was a small snow drift covering part of the trail.
At the top of the pass a number of mountains to the south were revealed but, unfortunately, it was smoky on the other side too.
The trail down the other side of Hope Pass generally started with a much gentler grade and, in general, a better tread. It did get steeper and rougher in places as we descended.
Eventually we found a beautiful little creek crossing the trail after descending over 1000 feet. We refilled our water bottles there and this was the first time on the trip that we ran our water down to almost nothing. However, we were happy to have not carried extra water over the pass.
Shortly afterwards, around 7:00, we found a couple campsites with one taken by another camper. We set up the tent in a spot where it didn’t quite fit and made a simple dinner of salami and cheese with mustard and mayo wrapped in a tortilla. We went to bed before 9:00.
10.5 miles over almost 10 hours, 3,600 feet ascent, 1,300 feet descent.