Columbine Lake (#11.1)

At the Junco Lake Trailhead, the trail begins as an old jeep road. After a mile, the road forks and the right-hand fork leads to several tumbled down log cabins beside Meadow Creek. Following the left fork, the road will skirt the northern edge of a long open meadow through which Meadow Creek flows. Here the trail enters the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area. The trail continues to a junction. The right fork goes to Columbine Lake. The trail enters the forest where it climbs to a plateau, located 2 miles from the trailhead. For the next .5 mile, the trail skirts marshy meadows. At the southern end of these meadows, the trail meets Meadow Creek, where it becomes steep and rocky. From the creek, the trail heads left over boulders before turning again towards the creek. The trail then climbs alongside the creek to a smaller second plateau and another marshy meadow. At the end of this meadow, the trail then climbs to timberline, still following the creek, and ends at Columbine Lake. The lake is situated below Mt. Neva. It is a shallow lake, with a maximum depth of 8 feet containing rainbow and cutthroat trout. Columbine Lake offers day hikers a beautiful setting for a leisurely lunch and is well worth the hike through the wet meadows. Remnants of snow fields usually remain along the trail until the first or second week of July.