Hanging Lake Hike

Back in California a good friend of mine from Rock Harbor Church was telling me about how wonderful Colorado was. One of the things that made him gloat so much was the recent trip and particularly the a hike to Hanging Lake. He tried to show me photos on his phone, but it just didn’t do the place justice. Meanwhile I would just have to wait until I actually moved to Colorado to go see this place.

Fast Forward a year and some months later I am now in Colorado and staying as busy as ever exploring the state. So in late August when I finially had an open weekend my roommate and I headed out in search of Hanging Lakes. Directions: from the Denver area we took Highway 70 west until we got to the Hanging Lakes exit. When you exit the freeway you take a right on a side street heading east below I-70 to a parking area. Pretty simple. Parking was no problem, but if you’re interested in going be aware the parking does fill up faster on the weekends and in the mornings.

The funny thing about this hike is that it is only a 1 or 2 up hill to get to the hanging lake, but signs are all saying that it is "difficult". For two adventurous girls we thought this was a good joke.

The photos of Hanging Lake won’t show you why it is called hanging lake. The reason why, is because you are hiking up the side of a ravine, seriously up and up and up. The lake is on the side of one of these ravines and that is one of the reasons why it is so unusual. There is a lot of foliage so you can’t see how close the lake is to the edge of the cliff we are on.