Alta Lakes
We had just come down from Ophir Pass, and the Alta Lakes trailhead was very close by and easy to find. We immediately began climbing into the trees, and it was shady and relaxing.
Once we popped out of the trees, we were at the old Alta townsite. There were many buildings and old mining structures still standing. We noticed that there were a lot of vehicles and people at the townsite either just enjoying the afternoon or picnicking. We slowed down and took some pictures but did not exit our vehicles.
Before we knew it we were at the lakes. There were quite a few people there. Some were fishing, some were kayaking, and others were just hanging out. We went as far as we could up a couple of spurs and ran into some difficult but not extreme obstacles. Once we had exhausted several of the possible routes, we headed back for the main trail.
Once we reached the turnoff for Gold King Basin we decided to forego that spur this time as we still had one more trail to finish off the day. The trip back to Highway 145 was uneventful except for the considerable amount of oncoming traffic, as there were a lot of people heading up to the lakes mid-afternoon on a Sunday. We thought people would be heading the other way.
Once back on Highway 145 we headed north to Telluride and Last Dollar Road.
Report from a Different Day
