Deluge Lake Trail – Vail Valley

I know several of you have been especially sad the past few months since I haven’t been posting anything. Oh, you didn’t notice? No surprise there, really. In late July, I was distracted from my true calling by a contracting gig keeping me busy through September. The job reminded me that I need to focus on striking the “semi-” in my “semi-retired” status.

I’m getting more time off in September and made a reservation at a condo in West Vail. Many years ago I was sucked into the sales pitch of a time share. It isn’t something I’d do again, but it has the advantage of including Marriott Streamside as an option which I’ve used several times with family, Tanya and sometimes, just myself.

Vail Valley has several good day hikes and can be a great place to head out to the mountains. Vail has been a launching point for 3 of my 14ers, Mount of the Holy Cross, Mount Massive and Mount Elbert which I did with Tanya. This stay is only for a few nights so I decided to stick to day hiking. Today’s hike was Deluge Lake.

Deluge Lake Trail

The Deluge Lake trail is about 9 miles out and back with a 3,200 foot elevation gain. I found the trail using my usual method of searching AllTrails. It was one of the few trails in the Vail Valley I haven’t done before so I thought I’d give it a go. My fly rod came along for the ride, just in case. 🙂

The trailheads for Deluge Lake Trail and Gore Creek Trail are at the same location. Take exit 180 from I-70 and head east on Bighorn Road. You’ll pass back under I-70 and at 2 miles you’ll be at the trailhead parking just before the road crosses Gore Creek.

The temp was 48 by the Jeep thermometer. I think the Jeep was a bit optimistic. Despite this, I decided to stick with just the shorts and short sleeves for the hike. I knew things would warm up with the incline.

The rough intro to the trail

You’ll head out on the combined trail and very quickly come to a sign showing where Deluge Lake (Deluge Creek on the sign) separates from the main Gore Creek trail.

As expected, the first 2 to 2.5 miles is pretty steep. It seems like all the trails coming out of Vail Valley have that in common. This trail was a little more upsy than some of the others (yes, upsy is a technical hiking term). At one mile, I was hot and sweaty and glad I hadn’t bothered putting on a layer at the trailhead! Is that too much information? It takes a little over 1.2 miles to lose the noise from the interstate.

Along this initial section you get some great views of the range across Gore Creek valley. It was a little hazy with some cloud cover. The views were amazing in person.

There were lots of Golden-Mantled ground squirrels on this hike. Some people like to call them chipmunks. Louis Armstrong covered the whole tomato, tomato thing well, I say call them whatever works for you.

A break from the vertical climb

At the 2.5 mile mark, the trail transitions from Aspen forest to a deeper pine forest. For a while, Deluge Creek joins the trail here. The temperatures were cooler enough to make me think about adding a layer but I didn’t. The walk was a pleasant change of pace with this mostly level section. The forest was amazingly quiet and peaceful. There were a lot of downed trees. It was a great chance to enjoy the beauty of the forest.

The trail eventually passed through some meadows. I’m sure these were full of flowers earlier in the year. Now they were starting to turn a bit red for fall. In the distance, the peaks behind Deluge Lake started to be closer!

Deluge Lake

The last half mile up to the lake was steep. It didn’t feel as bad as the earlier section, even with tired legs. Maybe it was because I knew I was almost there.

Deluge Lake is a beautiful alpine lake backed by small peaks. The water was crystal clear. It made a perfect lunch spot with my water and a protein bar. 🙁 I really need to take better food. I had the lake to myself which is always a plus.

There weren’t any fish visible and the lake didn’t look that conducive to fish, almost like it was too shallow and might freeze solid in the winter. I broke out the fly rod anyway but didn’t have any luck. After about an hour I gave up and just enjoyed the views and sun.

There were a couple of interesting things at the lake. I came across a hut that is available to use for overnight stays. It seemed clean and fairly well visited. I read online that some people have stayed there before. Made me wonder who manages it and why it is there.

I also saw a small rodent swimming around in the lake. I’m not sure what animal it was but it was about the size of a mouse. Definitely not something I’ve seen before! If anyone knows what it is, please let me know.

Heading down and people encounters

The hike down was mostly uneventful. I got a few good pictures of animals and found the downhill pounding mostly tolerable on my knees.

Along the way, there was one noteworthy encounter. Just after leaving the lake I met an older gentleman on his way up. I stepped off the trail to let him pass and we exchanged hello’s. I mentioned he was almost there and he replied “That’s what the map says”. Not exactly what I was expecting. I commented about how lucky we were that it was such a beautiful and quiet day. He replied “Thank ya, I hadn’t noticed”. I figured I either made some trail etiquette faux pas or missed the sarcasm (it didn’t sound like sarcasm). We said our goodbyes and I headed on down the trail. Shortly after that, I came across three more hikers on their way up. Not wanting to fail a social test again, I just said hi. That seemed to go over well so I had my go-forward plan. 🙂

Overall, I saw 2 people coming down while I was headed up, and 8 people going up while I was headed down. Weekday hiking is the best for avoiding crowds!