Herman Lake Hike

Yesterday morning we drove about 60 minutes West of Denver to the Herman Gulch Trail head.  You take I-70 and get off at exit 218, a few miles before the tunnel.  You can see the trail head from the exit ramp, just a few hundred feet away.  This has some pros and cons:  pro that it is so easily accessible and you've probably passed it a hundred times without realizing it was there.  The biggest con is that it can get rather crowded and the first few minutes of the hike are full of noise from the interstate.

The trail head has bathrooms and plenty of parking, but don't let that fool you.  Make sure to get there early in the summer months.  We arrived at 8:15 on Saturday morning and there were about 3 dozen cars already there.  A perk of getting there early: minimal hikers at the end of the hike at Herman Lake.  

The hike starts out in the forest on a wide, rocky trail.  It steadily increases and after the first mile, opens into a meadow.

You know you're close to the lake when you see the sign for the fork in the road.  You can continue 5 miles to Jones Pass or hike another 15 minutes  West to Herman Lake.  Pettingell Peak(13,553') and Hagar Mountain (13,195') are both visible from this point.

The guys decided to jump in the lake (just to say they did ?) but I opted out of this terrible idea.  They only lasted about 5 seconds, once the picture was taken, to jump out.  The air was about 60 degrees but I'm betting the water was in the 40s!  Beautiful hike, great for out of towners visiting the area.