Pitkin Lake Trail – Vail Valley

Two posts in two days, more than anyone wants to read about my trips! Despite this, I’m writing up my post on hiking Pitkin Lake Trail just a day after the write-up on Deluge Lake. Hopefully you won’t find it too annoying. It just happened to be what I was doing the past two days!

Pitkin Lake Trail

The Pitkin Lake Trail is a little over 10 miles out and back from the Vail Valley. The elevation gain is just shy of 3,000 feet. I’d hiked the trail back in 2016 and spotted nice trout in the lake. After striking out at Deluge Lake, I wanted to go someplace I knew there were some fish. From what I remembered, the lake was beautiful which was a nice plus!

The trailhead for Pitkin Lake Trail is off I-70 at exit 180. Simply exit and turn north at the end of the exit ramp. At the T, turn right (east) onto Fall Line Drive. The road ends at some townhomes and you’ll see parking at Pitkin Creek. There are 3 different sets of parking areas but spots are limited. The Jeep reported it was 45 when I arrived so I put on an additional layer and headed out.

Initial steep climb

As is customary for Vail Valley trails, the first section is pretty steep. It only lasts about .5 miles or so. It’s worth it to have the roar of I-70 quickly go away. I like the way the trail starts with a small bridge crossing Pitkin Creek. It’s a pretty shot.

Transition to “regular” trail

Once you make it through the initial climb, the trail changes to a typical Colorado trail. This section first passes through Aspen forest. The trees are just starting to change. I’ll be back in Vail in about 10 days. The colors should be nice by then. Most of the meadows were transitioning to fall coloring. I suspect the trail is amazing in the summer with lots of flowers.

Around 2.5 miles in, there is a pretty steep climb up a rock shelf. When you are on the east end of this shelf (just after the initial climb), look down the valley and you’ll see a beautiful waterfall. On this day it was quiet enough I could hear it. The trail doesn’t approach the waterfall. Someday I’d like to hike over to it and see it up close. You can’t be afraid to bushwhack your way through the wilderness!

The trail alternates between flat and steep sections from here until mile 4 when it gets a bit steeper. This trail doesn’t seem as steep as Deluge Lake, but it was still enough to get my heart pumping and requiring an occasional rest stop. The pine forest is very peaceful and provides a nice, cooler spot during the hike. There were plenty of times when you’d enter an open spot and see great views. I snapped a nice picture of a Junco here.

Pitkin Creek accompanies you through a lot of the forested section of the trail. I took a few minutes and just enjoyed the relaxing sound of it.

Around mile 4 you’ll come across a meadow with a lot of downed trees. These shots always make me wonder what it would have been like to be there during whatever storm blew them down. Probably best not to find out. There was a nice waterfall off to the left as I approached the meadow. Definitely worth a few minutes of enjoyment.

Once you pass this meadow, there is a pretty steady and steep climb to the lake. Some sections are really upsy. Keep an eye out behind you because there are some great views which give an excuse to stop and rest.

Eventually you reach the lake. The lake is a really special setting. The scene is beautiful. The ridgelines around the lake look like they’d be fun to explore sometime as well.

Fishing at Pitkin Lake

As soon as you approach the lake, you’ll see some good-sized trout swimming around. I hadn’t fished this lake before and couldn’t wait to get my line in the water.

At first, I tried a Blue Dun dry fly with a bead-head nymph dropper, a standard starter setup for me. The dry fly got some interest but I noticed the fish were approaching and then going elsewhere. There wasn’t any interest in the bead-head. I did catch one pretty quickly but no one else was interested. I decided to skip the dropper and just fish the dry fly. The Royal Humpy did ok, but the best was a size 16 Elk Hair Caddis. That one drew the most interest.

In the end, I only landed 3 good-sized trout and had 2 others on that I didn’t land. There were at least 8 timid strikes I missed, shame on me! What a great time!

A good day in Colorado

I headed back down after a few hours at the lake. Once again I’d benefited from going during the week. I only saw 11 other people all day. It’d been another great day in Colorado with great weather, beautiful vistas and fun fishing.