Ice Lake, a gem in the beautiful San Juan mountains of Colorado.
The light, ice blue color of this lake is unparalleled to any other lake we’ve seen,
making it the most beautiful lake in the world for us.
And yes, it is as ice cold as the name suggests.
The lake is located in southwestern Colorado near the towns of Silverton, Ouray and Durango.
The hike to the lake starts at the Ice Lakes trailhead in South Mineral Campground in San
Juan National Forest.
Here is the Alltrails webpage for this trail, which states that the hike is a 6.9 mile loop
with an elevation gain of 2,650 feet.
This is not an easy trail for a beginner, so we suggest training for this hike by doing
a smaller high elevation hike beforehand.
We like using Alltrails during our hike to see the elevation map and how far we are to
the end of the trail by using our smartphone’s GPS.
We started the hike early in the morning at sunrise to avoid the crowds, as this is a
very popular place for hikers, especially in summer when we were here.
Be sure to also explore the equally beautiful Island lake located on the same trailhead
as Ice Lake, which we didn’t do at this time.
Along the uphill hike, you encounter beautiful waterfalls and an abundance of wildflowers.
You will also forge a few river crossings and get your feet wet in the crisp, cold water.
We filtered our water in these streams, and the water was the sweetest and tastiest water
that we have ever tried!
We use a Survivor Filter Pro water filter on our hikes because it is compact with a
hand pump and easy to use, and we are not sponsored by anyone.
Click on the link in the video’s description to check out the filter on Amazon.
The last section of the hike is the most difficult.
There is a vertical climb to the top of the peak in this clip.
The valley before the climb is covered in wildflowers.
Once you reach the top, though, the alpine meadows are straight from a fairy tale.
And soon after, you reach the lake.
This wasn’t our dog but he made for a great shot.
Even this video doesn’t do justice to how beautiful the lake is in real life.
We hope this video inspires you to travel to more wonderful places in nature.
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