The Flat Tops Wilderness is a popular place for multi-day backpacks, so finding short, warm up hikes isn’t easy. After looking at several maps, we decided to hike a road to two lakes as a warm up hike.
We started at the turnoff for Rams Horn Lake Road on Forest Road 900. There are four campsites here and a bathroom. We found plenty of parking next to the road, away from the campsites.
Rams Horn Lake Road has two signs. The first calls it Road 9111 and shows it’s open to everything from hiking to horses to bikes to OHVs. A second sign says simply "rough road."
The tree-lined road starts uphill right away, but never gets too steep. The trees gave us some nice shade as we headed uphill. Because this is a rough road, expect dips with water and some muddy areas, depending on when it last rained. That also means it can get buggy.
At 0.6 miles, the road forks at a large meadow. There’s a sign post there, but no sign. The map on the COTREX app and AllTrails app showed Rams Horn Lake Road turning right, so we went that way. At this point, you’ve gained about 170 feet.
The road goes around the meadow and continues toward the lakes.
About one mile from the parking area, you might see glimpses of a lake on your right, through the trees. That’s Wood Lake.
At 1.25 miles, the road bends and drops downhill putting you between the two lakes.
Now you have options. You can take pictures and turn around or follow the road as it winds partially around Rams Horn Lake. We found deer, coyote and other animal footprints in the mud as we hiked.
The road ends at about 1.6 miles, but we decided to continue circling the lake. At times, there was a faint trail. Other times, we were walking through marshy wetlands and climbing over downed trees.
After circling the lake, we headed back on the road, but you could probably also walk around Wood Lake.
Details: The hike to Rams Horn Lake, around it and back was about 3.25 miles with about 350 feet of elevation gain.
Remember when hiking in Colorado that our beautiful places are getting overrun and need to be treated with kindness - don’t pick the flowers, don’t leave dog poop bags to be picked up later (it’s called leave no trace), bring a wag bag for you just in case, wear headphones if you want to listen to music, check the weather, bring the ten essentials (google it) and tell someone where you’re going and when you’ll be back.
Remember that our beautiful places are getting overrun and need to be treated with kindness. Don’t pick the flowers, don’t leave dog poop bags to be picked up later, bring a wag bag for you just in case, don't play music out loud, check the weather, bring the 10 essentials and tell someone where you’re going and when you’ll be back.
If you have any questions, or hike suggestions, email me at HikingDebbie@gmail.com and find more great hikes by following me on Facebook at Facebook.com/DenverHikingExaminer.