My favorite lakes and waterfalls hidden in plain sight in the San Juan's
July's epic adventures will take you to views and wildflowers galore!
A few years ago I hosted a Backcountry Retreat at the OPUS hut. The OPUS hut is located off of Ophir pass which is just outside of Ouray, Colorado. I chose the location for its solitude and beauty and because it’s accessible to a lot of hiking in the area. While you do have to hike to the OPUS hut, a trip up Ophir pass itself to the summit is well worth it for the views and because you can access a few alpine lakes with minimal effort. The first, we found at the summit of the pass called Crystal lake.
You can hike to this lake from the OPUS hut, but if you are just making a day trip you’ll drive a dirt road (high clearance recommend, although the road isn’t technical except for some switch backs) and park at the top where there’s a sign for the summit of Ophir pass. You don’t want to continue further, even though this will take you to Telluride as the road turns to shale and becomes pretty technical as far as off-roading is concerned. On the left hand side of the road you’ll see a faint trail in the scree and that will lead you up to Crystal Lake. While the hike is only 0.6 miles, the uphill will get your heart pounding. There’s usually no one at the lake, and while it isn’t a Caribbean blue color, it’s still beautiful.
Behind the Opus hut there’s a trail that will take you to another lake called Ruby. I actually found this while we were staying at the hut and it’s a pretty little alpine lake surrounded by wildflowers.
If you continued up the scree field behind the lake you’d be in for a challenging uphill climb that will take you to Columbine lake just over the summit. This is quite the scramble and is worse going down than up. You’ll go straight up that scree field and stay to the right of the notch to reach the summit.
Or, you can take a little longer trail that is behind the hut that will lead you to Columbine. This is a lesser known trail and it cuts off a significant amount of mileage to Columbine lake, which is a brilliant Caribbean blue. Many people see photos of this lake and assume it’s Ice Lake Basin, but it’s not.
Speaking of Ice Lake Basin, if you’d like a wonderful waterfall hike that has a pretty blue color, there’s one located right near the trailhead of Ice Lake Basin. You can camp at the South Mineral Campground for a fee, or you can just park at the trailhead for Ice Lakes and walk behind the campground, following the stream behind the campground upstream that will eventually lead you to this waterfall:
For years I wondered how so many people got to this waterfall and where it was. Turns out it’s hidden in plain sight! The official name of this is South Fork Mineral Creek Falls. There’s a dirt road that continues directly past the campground and if you follow the faint trail to the left it will lead you down towards the stream that will continue to veer right and eventually lead you to the falls. You will most likely hear the rushing of the falls before you see it. I find this area best visited in the fall when the water levels are lower and there’s more of a contrasting blue color with the red rock. The trail to get to the falls is slightly eroded and to climb down the falls might be a bit precarious, but they can be viewed from farther away as well.
The San Juans are vast and there’s so many areas to discover. I often use google earth, type in this area and then zoom in on the lakes I find that I want to discover. While there are lots of places to stay in Ouray and areas to camp, if you’re looking for a great backcountry experience and don’t mind a bit of a drive and hike, the OPUS hut might be for you or you might find yourself staying for a night after a backpacking trip in the area. There’s a lot of beautiful scenery and much of it you can enjoy from a quick hike from your car.
If you’re looking for wildflowers, now is the time as we’ve been enjoying quite a bit of monsoonal rain!
I hope this inspires your next adventure to enjoy the area near Silverton off Highway 550 outside of Ouray, Colorado!
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