Rocky Mountain National Park Hikes: Lawn and Crystal Lakes

In the years since we moved to Colorado, more than one person has told me that Lawn Lake is their favorite hike in Rocky. Obviously, I couldn’t ignore a recommendation of that caliber. And while it’s not #1 on my Rocky hikes list – Chasm Lake retains that designation – I can see why people rank Lawn Lake as their favorite. The trail itself wasn’t all that remarkable, but the lake is set amidst some lovely scenery.

Eight days after arriving home from my mother-daughter Rocky backpacking trip, I found myself repacking my pack and preparing to head back to the park, this time with Pat, for round two. Our day started out in a rather exciting fashion when a black bear ran across the highway in front of us! It’s only the second bear we’ve ever seen in Colorado and it was absolutely one of those right-place-at-the-right-time moments. Fifteen seconds later and we’d have missed it entirely.

Lawn Lake Trailhead is located at the beginning of Old Fall River Road in Rocky. It’s a decently large parking area, and not the most popular hike due to its length; nonetheless, we got the last spot in the main lot upon arrival at 7:30am on a Saturday in August. Luckily, there is overflow parking available just up the road at Alluvial Fan and in a pullout at the junction of Old Fall River Road and Highway 34. Both will add a short distance to your hike.

Reaching Lawn Lake is an approximately 13.3 mi (21.4 km) round trip endeavor, with about 2510 feet (765 m) of elevation gain, making this a good candidate for a backpacking trip rather than a day hike. Additionally, this allowed us to tack on a climb up to Crystal Lake, about 1.6 miles (2.6 km) and 690 feet (210 m) above, which was, for me, the highlight.

Lawn Lake is a natural lake, but in the early 1900s farmers living down on the Colorado plains built an earthen dam at the outlet, turning it into a reservoir to retain water for irrigation. Unfortunately, after many years the access road to the dam began to deteriorate and was never repaired, thus maintenance on the dam ceased.

Just after dawn on July 15, 1982, the dam failed catastrophically. Over 200 million gallons (755 million liters) of water spilled into the Roaring River at once. The Roaring River drops 2500 feet (760 m) in 6 miles (9.6 km) so you can imagine the speed with which this water rushed downstream. A deep gorge was scoured into the landscape and trees near the riverbank were torn down and washed away by the force of the water. The flood reached the town of Estes Park, where it caused an immense amount of damage. Additionally, three people who were camping in the park at the time were killed.

Though it’s been 40 years, the remnants of this flood are still visible today. An alluvial fan of debris can be seen just up the road from the Lawn Lake Trailhead. The trail itself runs alongside the Roaring River, and the sharply eroded edges and tangles of dead trees are evidence of the power and destruction of the flood.

Other than that, I don’t have much to note about the hike. It’s pretty straightforward. The trail is easy to follow. The elevation gain is steady but manageable. The terrain opens up about a mile shy of the lake, at which point it becomes fairly obvious where the lake is. Beyond, a mountain pass called The Saddle is clearly visible as well (and is an optional add-on to this hike, but we weren’t feeling up for it; even if we had been, the weather had other ideas).

We reached Lawn Lake a little over three hours after departing the trailhead and found all four backpacking sites unoccupied, though three of the four would fill by evening. We checked out all of them and settled on site #3. I think. I forgot to take a photo of the sign, and the numbering wasn’t intuitive.

None of the sites had a view of the lake, and all of them had an annoying number of mosquitoes, so I’m not sure any is preferable over the others. One of them is pretty far from the privy, though. Our campsite also had a couple chipmunks who had clearly been fed by previous campers and were relentless in their attempts to steal our food. Once we scared them away for good, it was much more relaxing.

I particularly enjoyed this tree in our site that had a hole all the way through it but was somehow still alive!

Anyway. After setting up camp and eating some lunch, the sun was still shining and the sky was looking pretty good, so we decided to hike the rest of the way to Crystal Lake. We stopped at Lawn Lake first to fill our water bottles and ended up on a trail immediately adjacent to the shore. This is not the right trail, and we had to bushwhack up to the actual trail. Correct trail located, it was a steep but easy-to-follow path up to the lake.

The trail exits the trees and ascends steadily up and away from Lawn Lake. Looking back, you can see the former level of the reservoir. We also spotted two moose in the distance, hanging out in the willows at the end of the lake.

The trail weaves through hillsides of wildflowers and crosses a small creek as it steadily gains elevation.

At the junction, stay left for Crystal Lake. The first body of water is just a tiny unnamed pond. The second is Little Crystal Lake and the third is Crystal Lake. As pretty as Lawn Lake is, Crystal Lake was the highlight for me. Nestled beneath the cliffs of Fairchild Mountain, the water a lovely turquoise hue… this is absolutely my kind of place!

We stayed for about thirty minutes, and I would have happily stayed longer but the weather was not on our side. Though sun was shining on us, the sky behind us was getting progressively uglier and we heard the first rumble of thunder off in the distance. We were over a mile above tree line, so we needed to make good time back to Lawn Lake. Fortunately, it wasn’t a difficult descent. I wish I’d had time to take more photos, though.

In the time we spent at the lakes, one of the moose had meandered up the hill and was now lounging not far from the trail. Luckily, he wasn’t interested in us, though I was fairly interested in putting some distance between myself and him.

We almost made it back to our campsite before the rain started.

Luckily, it was initially just a sprinkle. The downpour held off for about ten minutes, by which point we were safely ensconced in our tent. Or, more accurately, I should say the first downpour, which came with a dose of thunder and lightning. The rain stopped and the sun even poked out briefly before the second downpour arrived, coupled with even more thunder and lightning. Two hours after climbing into the tent, we were finally able to venture back out.

Unfortunately for us, the weather wasn’t done. We were rehydrating our dinners when storm #3 rolled in, and this one brought rain, thunder, lightning… and then some hail. Because is it even a true Colorado backpacking trip if you don’t get hailed on?

Lucky for us, we were underneath our backpacking shelter. Unlucky for us, hail is bouncy and an overhead shelter doesn’t really keep it from bouncing right up underneath and getting everything wet and muddy. I’m also always amazed at the amount of moisture that falls in a short time when it hails. Our shelter was set up in the low spot of our campsite with a cluster of trees behind it, and pretty soon water was running down the hill and settling at our feet and we found ourselves sitting in puddles of water. It was very unpleasant.

This storm, thankfully, was the last of the night. Gradually, the sky began to clear and the water began to soak into the ground, and it ended up being a lovely evening. After cleaning up as best we could (seriously, never go backpacking in Colorado without towels), we meandered down to the lake with our chairs to enjoy the sunset. The surface of the lake was calm, a complete contrast to the volatile weather just an hour earlier, and we marveled at the clear reflections, punctuated by the occasional ripples from a jumping fish.

We slept decently and woke to clear skies, and it was a leisurely morning at camp followed by a straightforward hike back to the car. The only annoyance was in packing up wet gear, but that’s also become the norm for us at this point, it seems.

And then it was back to Denver and, for me, back to work the next morning for the first day of class. I’ve come to enjoy our tradition of escaping into the backcountry of Rocky the weekend before fall semester begins, and I’m already looking forward to wherever we decide to go next year.

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Up next: it’s time to summit some 14ers!

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The Important Stuff:

• Getting there: Lawn Lake Trailhead is located at the beginning of Old Fall River Road in Rocky. Much of Old Fall River Road is one-way (uphill only) and closed most of the year, so this trailhead can only be reached from the bottom of the road at its junction with US Hwy 34

• Fees and passes: there is a $30/car daily or $35/car weekly entrance fee to RMNP; interagency annual passes are accepted. From May-Oct, if you arrive between 9:00am-2:00pm you will also need a timed entry permit to access this trailhead if you plan to day hike or a backcountry permit if you plan to backpack

• Permits: backpacking in Rocky requires a backcountry permit. Permits can be reserved in advance (recommended, as they are highly competitive) or you can try your luck with a walk-up permit on the morning of your hike. Permits are site-specific and cost $36 (this is in addition to the park entry fee). The Cutbank and Golden Banner sites are just 2.5 miles (4 km) up the trail and have a total of 3 campsites near the river. There are 4 individual and 1 group/stock sites at Lawn Lake

• Hiking: roundtrip distance to Lawn Lake is 13.3 miles (21.4 km) with 2510 feet (765 m) of elevation gain. For Crystal Lake, add 3.3 miles (5.3 m) and 690 feet (210 m) of elevation gain, roundtrip, for a total of 16.6 miles (26.7 m) and 3200 feet (975 m)

• Other: two words: bug spray. DEET will be your friend on this trip. While the light breeze down by the lake kept the bugs at bay, there are a lot of them up at the campsites. Someone I follow on social media camped at Lawn Lake a couple weeks before we did and had the same experience, so it seems to be an issue all summer.

For more information, see my posts on visiting Rocky Mountain National Park and backpacking