Eldorado NF
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Scout Carson Lake Eldorado NF |
August 5, 2013
The Horse Canyon Trailhead starts at Highway-88, about a mile north of Silver Lake. Since the route skirts the resort itself, however, there must be a way to shortcut the trail and save a couple of miles of walking.
The access road is lined with private cabins, and I've no desire to trespass. Just past the turnoff to Kit Carson Lodge is a campground behind which I might access the trail. Parking across the street where there is plenty of room, I stroll through the camp and up the hill behind it. Finding a little road up there, I cross it and continue north, running into the trail within a hundred yards or so.
The Horse Canyon Trail
That was easy! Of course, it was virtually impossible to go wrong.
Lava rocks everywhere
Thunder Mountain to the north
More trees ahead
An online writer warns of a long slog through the forest here, and he is right. It is a good two miles before any sort of viewpoint presents itself.
Approaching a high point, I hope
Silver Lake to the west
By walking off the trail a few yards, I am able to peer down into the canyon below, finding just what I expected.
Machado Postpile
Yep. There it is, for all to see — the formation I visited
two months ago (Hike #196), yet which inexplicably
remained unrecognized for what it is until it was spotted from this point in
1990 by an eagle-eyed hiker couple who knew about the "legend of Jess
Machado's postpile". The mind boggles.
Scroll around this photo and see the formations
for yourself ⇔
Well, the postpile still will be there when I decide to revisit it. Around the next corner, the forest disappears. It looks like another lengthy walk ahead, but in open country this time.
Melissa Coray Peak
I wrote extensively about the pioneer woman Melissa Coray on Hike #97 to Emigrant Lake.
Thimble Peak
I don't know why they named that peak as such; the thimble-like
formation I see is on the other mountain.
A mid-summer garden
Is that an arch up there?
It's a lonesome trail today
Very strange. It looks like a lid for a propane tank
Into granite-land at last
At a trail junction, the more well-used route goes left up toward Melissa Coray Peak. The little spur trail to the right is the one I want.
Junction
Nice campsite
It is less than half a mile over to the lake, where the environment is unexpectedly verdant.
Scout Carson Lake is beautiful
As I munch some gorp and dip my feet in the water, there is time to capture the antics of some critters in the lake itself.
Water skipper
Pollywog
The original plan included a one-mile cross-country shortcut over to the summit of Melissa Coray Peak. Having already walked nearly five miles, however, I will postpone that one for another time; for there remains another untried route up that mountain.
The radio tower is 700 feet up from here
Being here is amazingly pleasant today. I waited long enough for the bugs to die off.
That guy went the wrong way
A parting shot of Scout Carson Lake
Unnoticed on the way in is evidence that I am not as far from 'civilization' as one might have thought:
One of the Kirkwood ski lifts on the north flank of Thimble Peak
A partial shortcut through the meadow
Still no sign of another human
Near the postpile lookout point is a threesome resting beside the trail; I would see no other hikers today.
A GPS waypoint makes it easy to relocate the spot where I intercepted the trail. Close to it is a cairn and a little social trail heading back, so I take it. This causes me to access the little road a bit farther west than before. It leads to a currently unoccupied cabin; I take the liberty of using its accompanying stairway down to the paved road.
Private stairs
Right here is a little bay where I went kayaking myself nearly every summer in the late fifties and early sixties. Those truly were the good old days.
Déjà vu
§: This walk has been on my bucket list for quite a while; I am
glad finally to have done it. The route is fairly long and the scenery
is just so-so; but Scout Carson Lake itself is delightful.
Be sure to go there after the mosquitoes have departed, because it is their
kind of place.
| Scenery |  |
| Difficulty | |
| Personality |  |
| Solitude |  |
