Hiking Ute Pass TR N31
Things don’t always go as planned. In those instances I have learned to make the best of the situation. Sometimes everything works out, other times it’s best to move on to what’s next on the agenda. In this case, things worked out in our favor. While we were staying in Hot Sulfur Springs, CO we decided to find some surrounding hikes. Evelyn Lake seemed promising so we set out to find the trail head using directions from a blog post as our compass. On our way we stopped to take some pics of our rental car because, why not?
Turns out our directions were a little faulty. The road we were told to turn down ended up being a cul-de-sac with several houses and driveways full of snow. If I would have looked up the trail head on an actual map beforehand I would have found that it is labeled on Google Maps as “Lake Evelyn Trailhead.” Oh well. With no service all we had was a screenshot of the blog post on my phone and our car GPS which had no idea where Lake Evelyn was located. Making the best of our situation we back tracked to the main country road, Co Rd 3, and continued down it in search of another hiking option. We found a pull off spot with a great view near Ute Peak. Here is a rough spot on the map.
Right around this area we ran into Ute Pass TR N31. It was also a trail head for Ute Peak TR N24. Honestly at this point we were a little lost and had nothing else planned for the afternoon so why not check it out?
We were both thankful we did. The first part of the trail takes you through some forested sections with tall pine trees. The afternoon light hit the forest in a manner creating a warm glow. And boy did we feel warm. It just so happened to be our first full day in Colorado and our Midwest, flat lander bodies had not quite adjusted to the elevation. Within the first 10 minutes I had already shed 2 layers and ditched my hat.
Once through the forested section we came to a grand view of the Rockies. Photo Session time! Dave was a good sport.
He even got a few of me. I later made fun of him for his straight horizons.
On our way down we took a few shots as well. Then it was back to the car to find our way home.
We actually did not hike the full 2.4 miles because of our lack of snow clothes and empty bellies, but if you have the chance I would recommend it. The section we did was lovely and I’m sure it would be worth finishing the trail.
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