Snow Pass Loop

Near the top of the pass with Snow Lake down below. Click to enlarge.

With the High Lonesome finally in the rearview and to kick off the month of August, Anna-Lisa, Jax and I headed out for a route in the Gores that’s sort of evolved into a bit of a local classic in the Snow Pass loop. We’ve made it an unofficial goal of ours to visit every named lake in Eagle County that can be reached via a trail, and this loop happens to collect three of them in two completely different drainages. It also made for a nice training day for Anna-Lisa and her upcoming half-marathon.

Starting in East-Vail the route follows Gore Creek for several miles before hanging a left and climbing up to Gore Lake. From there a bit of off-trail bushwhacking further north eventually lands you at Snow Lake. From there it’s a short climb up and over “Snow Pass” to Deluge Lake capped off by a long descent down the Deluge Creek trail back to the car.

It’s pretty easy to figure out and I don’t think it’s a big secret either, so here’s a map of the loop. We went in the counterclockwise direction. Click to enlarge.

The initial miles to the Gore Lake trail split started off hot and muggy as it had rained almost the entire night prior. It’s been great to have a fairly wet summer this year in contrast to the dry ones we seem to be getting more and more around here.

Near Gore Lake with one of the Zodiac Spires in the distance.

We spent a few minutes at Gore Lake, a quick offshoot from our intended route but it seemed appropriate to visit this place again. It’s a great spot..

The goal from Gore Lake is to climb through a series of meadows in a northeasterly direction, eventually curving around the base of Snow Peak’s long east ridge. There are a few cairns strewn about through here but trying to follow them might be more trouble than its worth.

Off the trail now.

Nice wildflowers through here, another perk of all the rain we’ve gotten.

After rounding the corner there’s nowhere else to really go besides west up the drainage…

Paralleling the creek below a sub-summit of Mt. Valhalla. Click to enlarge.

This section was super green as the wildflowers continued to pop even more the higher we climbed. Photo by Anna-Lisa. Click to enlarge.

Eventually we arrived at Snow Lake, our most anticipated destination for the day. It’s a true alpine lake with a remote feel to it, made more dramatic by the rock shores and craggy towers surrounding it. If you make the effort to get there you’ll very likely have the place all to yourself.

At the lake with Snow Pass up and to the right.

One more short climb up to the top of the pass and we had pretty much all of the day’s vertical gain over and done with.

Another one looking back down at Snow Lake.

On the pass we chatted with a pair of Vail locals who had pitched their tents up there intent on enjoying the sunset from 12,500 ft. Pretty sweet place to spend the night if you ask me.

Back on the trail now descending into Deluge Creek with our third lake and “Grand Traverse Peak” up ahead.

Cooling off.

After a brief dip in Deluge Lake we grabbed the trail again and ran out the final 5 miles back down to town. Stats for the loop came out to 15 miles and 4,400 ft.

Get those alpine days in while you can, word on the street is we’re in for a long, cold winter 🙂