Whitney Lake

For five of the past seven years, I’ve been lucky enough to enjoy a week-long stay in Vail. The Aspen at Streamside condos make a perfect launching pad for exploring the Vail Valley and beyond. This year, my friend Chuck joined me for a few hiking adventures. He was coming from the Chicago area so doing a 14er day one was out. We started on Monday with hike up to Whitney Lake in the Holy Cross Wilderness. It was a pretty area with aspens changing color, and a great start to our week.

Getting there

We were leaving from West Vail making it a short drive to the trailhead. Our route was to take I-70 West to the Minturn/Leadville exit and head south on CO24. After approximately 12 miles, we turned right onto Homestake Road. A moose was heading into the woods just as we reached the turnoff, unfortunately faster than we could get a picture. Once on Homestake Road, continue 5 miles until a parking area is on your left. The trailhead is on the other side of the road from the small parking area.

The temp was on the cooler side, about 38 when we left the Jeep. We put on our packs and headed up the trail.

Pretty fall colors

The aspens in this part of Colorado were changing rapidly. Some areas were bright yellow and yet there were some trees in Vail that hadn’t turned at all. On this trail, it seemed like every overlook offered good views back into the valley with lots of yellow. It’s one of the reasons that CO24 north of Minturn makes a great leaf-peeping route!

The trail has a fairly modest, consistent slope with the occasional steeper section. It didn’t take us too long to cover the roughly 3 miles to the lake. Once there, we enjoyed some of the views, found a nice rock in the sun, and relaxed. There were a few fish rising so I got out my fly rod and gave it a go.

The lake has crystal clear waters making it fairly easy to see the trout. Chuck helped me by spotting the fish and guiding my casts. The fish are larger than most of the trout I see in these lakes. Based on my success, they are also smarter. I had two fish on but failed to land either one. The others seemed uninterested in my offerings.

Chuck and I spent several hours enjoying the day’s perfect weather. Eventually we headed back down wrapping up a short, but pretty, hike.

Good food on the return

It was late afternoon by the time we got back to the trailhead. For us old guys, that means dinner time, better known as the blue-hair specials. We decided to stop in at Kirby Cosmo’s BBQ. It turned out to be an excellent choice! We enjoyed great service and food. The fried-green tomatoes were our favorite item. We strongly recommend stopping by and try them out!