Hiking the Ice Lakes Trail - Silverton, Colorado - Ice Lake and Island Lake

Hiking the Ice Lakes Trail - Silverton, Colorado - Ice Lake and Island Lake

Firstly, yes. The water really is that color. We hiked the Ice Lakes trail, and were able to check out three of the lakes; Lower Ice Lake, Ice Lake and Island Lake. We just passed by Lower Ice Lake and were fairly far away from it. Looked like a good place to camp if you decided to backpack it. Ice lake was....amazing. The water was so vividly blue it didn't look real. We climbed a couple hundred feet higher to check out Island Lake, only to find that it's water was an incredible shade of green. Both lakes were unreal to see in person.

As for the hike, we did an out and back loop; up to Ice Lake, then over to Island Lake, then back down to join the trail we came up. Overall it was 8.06 miles and 2,605 ft elevation gain. The trail leading up is pretty relentless in it's elevation gain, but it's very pretty. You start in the pines and aspen. Eventually you come to a waterfall that was the site of what looked like a pretty large avalanche from earlier in the year when we were there. Then it's up some more until you climb up to Lower Ice Lake. The trail is a couple hundred (?) feet away from Lower Ice Lake and to be honest, it didn't look amazing enough for us to make the detour. It did look like a great place to camp if you were backpacking since it was in the tree line. Then it was up another steep climb to Ice Lake. I've never seen that shade of blue in nature. A few hundred feet more and we were at Island Lake. After looking at pictures, I wasn't expecting it to be the surreal green color it was. Both lakes were amazing. We ate lunch there, then headed back down the mountain.

If you're feeling it, there are a couple more lakes that you can check out. In retrospect, I wish we had. But we'll be back.

An absolutely amazing hike with unreal views. I can't recommend this one enough.

Видео Hiking the Ice Lakes Trail - Silverton, Colorado - Ice Lake and Island Lake канала Jerry Arizona