Backpacking at Thomas Lakes
- Kristen Hodges
- Jul 6, 2019
- 3 min read
July 6, 2019 - Thomas Lakes, Basalt, CO 81621
On the weekend of July 4th, Austin and I had no plans but longed to get out into the wilderness for a quick, last-minute backpacking trip. We were limited to places where permits weren't required, so we looked around the state for something within a 4 hour-drive of Denver. Austin found Thomas Lakes trail, a highly rated 8-mile out and back near Aspen, Colorado - a 3.5 hour car ride away. And I'm so glad we chose it.
When we arrived, we were greeted at the trailhead with plentiful parking and stretching fields of brilliant yellow wildflowers. It was a great start to the trip and we could tell the (late) spring was in full bloom up here on Mt. Sopris.
The trail was a gradual slope up, with shade and sun exposure on and off. We hiked a bit through some forest and eventually some fields that were covered in wildflowers - white, purple, yellow - it was gorgeous! We had a few easy stream crossings and once we got a mile or so in, we were rewarded with expansive views of the surrounding valley and snow covered peaks in the distance. Just a few moments later, we started to see Mt. Sopris peeking over the tops of the trees.
We passed a small pond that Prince Creek runs into, the beautiful pines reflecting perfectly on the surface of the water.
Shortly after that, we arrived at Thomas Lakes. We followed signs for camp site 11, which was recommended to us by some people heading down as we were going up. There are 12 sites total, all very spread out and private, and they mostly seemed open. Our camp site was pretty close to the smaller lake between the two larger ones, and was easy for us to get water from. We set up our tent and hammocks, then packed up our day-pack for a trip around the lakes.
We found a footpath that seemed to go around the southeast lake, and made it halfway around until we finally realized that it wasn't really a path and we were doing a bit of bushwhacking to get our way through. Despite that, the views were spectacular. The water was a deep turquoise and Mt Sopris towered above. Austin and some other hikers nearby jumped in the frigid waters for a quick dip and to clean off the heat of the day.
We continued to make our way around the rest of the lake and were relieved when we were finally back on the real trail. We headed back to camp for a snack and to collect some firewood before going to the northwest lake to fish. We did some fly fishing around sunset and there were so many bugs (hence the buff over face in the picture below) but it made for some good fishing, and we both caught a few little trout each.
Once the fish stopped biting, we headed back to our campsite to make a fire and prepare dinner. It was so peaceful and there was no wind at all. We went down to the small lake near our site and it was perfectly calm, casting a crystal clear reflection on the wide piece of creek.
The night was quiet and restful and we woke up with sunrise to pack up and head out. We hit the northwest lake on the way out to see if we could have some of the same luck, but we didn't get any bites so we packed up the rods and headed back down the trail.
Just past the trailhead parking, there is a small lake called Dinkle Lake. We wanted to head into town for lunch, so we cleaned up by taking a quick dip in the water. It was much warmer than the Thomas Lakes water and it was quite refreshing! We were also the only ones there and it was so peaceful.
Pro Tips: My Osprey pack has the "hood" aspect double as a fanny pack, which makes a great built-in day pack for hikes from camp. Email me for more info if you are interested!
Lessons learned: Stick to the real trail! We went a bit off on our own for this one and ended up deep in the weeds and on some unsecured rocks. If we didn't have the lake to guide us, we could have gotten lost pretty easily!
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