Colorado Running Loops: Indian Peaks King Lake High Lonesome Devils Thumb

Date of the run: June 28th, 2014

One of the best looped runs close to the Front Range is in the Indian Peaks wilderness area outside of Boulder. With only an hour drive (that does not involve I-70) you can be in a very remote feeling wilderness for a perfect trail run or backpacking adventure.

The start is at Hessie Trailhead which gets very crowded very early during the summer (like 8am early).   The run can be done in either direction, though the climbing is more gradual in the clockwise direction (headed to Lost Lake first). Most people park their car legally along the road (between the signs) near the trailhead. Only high clearance, brave individuals drive their trucks to the actual trailhead- I have always seen the road to the TH under 1-2 feet of water for long stretches. It's about 0.6 miles around these mini-ponds to the actual Trailhead. Elevation at the start is 9,028 feet and the highest point is 12,100 feet.

The Route: The first mile (or so) stays the same for either direction. At the first trail juncture, if you chose the clockwise direction, head to Lost Lake (bear left). The trail gradually ascends at a steady rate for the next 6.5 miles.

Despite the fact that we ran this loop in very late June, we still found ourselves post-holing through a lot of snow. It made for a lot of glissade opportunities though!

After climbing through a lot of snow fields, and up a few switch backs, we made it to Kings Lake. The color of this lake was incredible.

This is HoneyBear- Cody's twin!

Still a lot of ice, even though it was almost July!

After enjoying the view of Kings Lake, we ran up the final pitch to the pass.

It was so windy- Jason had to hold onto this sign to not get blown away!

There was a nice trail to follow along the high alpine pass to make this a loop, following high lonesome trail until it intersected with the Devils Thumb trail. Running across the high mountains surrounded by amazing vistas was, well- a nice photo opportunity :)

There was only one more turn to take us down to Devils Thumb. Our trail was covered in snow, so we ended up sliding down on our butts. We finally got pack to hard packed trail and had a blast running down the mountain.

Tips:

• Arrive early-  like before 7:30am early- Hessie trailhead fills fast, not a lot of parking, and the alternative is parking at a high school and taking a bus in.
• The trailhead is very popular, as already mentioned, but once you are about 2 miles from the trailhead, any crowd drastically thins
• Plenty of water along the way
• Lots of snow well into the summer (at least in 2014)

Garmin Data: