Beartrack Lakes - Trail #43
Beginning Elevation: 9050
High Point: 11160
End Elevation: 11160
Difficulty: Moderate
Length, One Way: 5.4 miles
Seasons: Summer through Fall
USGS Quads: Harris Park
Other Maps: Arapaho National Forest, Trails Illustrated #104
Usage Level: High
Access: Trail is accessed via the Camp Rock Trailhead. The Beartrack Lakes Trail is found at the east end of the parking lot and the Beaver Meadows Trail at the west. The road in to the trailhead is in the Mount Blue Sky State Wildlife Area and is closed to motor vehicles and all entry except hunting and fishing after Labor Day, then closed to all entry from January 1 through June 14. Beginning July 1, 2020, entry to the State Wildlife Area requires a valid Colorado hunting or fishing license.
Access Trailheads: Camp Rock
Connecting Trails: Beaver Meadows, Cub Creek, Roosevelt Lakes
Description
This popular trail climbs the ridge between Truesdell Creek and Beartracks Creek to Lower Beartrack Lake. Expect to encounter many other hikers on summer weekends.
Beginning at the Camp Rock Campground, the trail travels through a forested environment and along a creek for about a mile. On crossing Bear Creek, it enters the Beartracks burn. After climbing up through the burn, you re-enter the forest, and later skirt the edge of a older burn, the Resthouse meadows burn. Farther up the ridge, the trail joins the Cub Creek Trail for about .2 miles then continues southwest. Shortly before the trail crosses Beartrack Creek, the Roosevelt Lakes Trail takes off to the south. Just after crossing the creek, you reach the trail's end at Lower Beartracks Lake.
In the winter of 2011/2012 a major wind event knocked down 400-600 acres of timber along the trail from north of the Cub Creek trail intersection to the lake. As of the end of 2015, all trails are now open. All were cut out by hand using crosscut saws.
TRAIL'S HISTORY
The Beartracks Trail is part of the original trail system in the Upper Bear Creek Basin, probably built sometime around 1917.
The first burn you enter after leaving the trailhead is from the 1998 Beartracks Fire. About 485 acres were burned in this fire, believed to have been started by a careless hiker. The Resthouse Meadows Fire burned 1,050 acres in 1962, prior to the designation of the Wilderness. Although the burn is to the west of the trail and rarely visible from the trail, sections of the trail were turned into dozer lines, which an observant hiker may recognize.
As may be seen on some older maps, there was at one time a backcountry campground along the trail near the lake. If you take the time to search, you may find the cement slab of an old outhouse on the north side of the trail.