Hanging Lake has been through it. In 2020, the Grizzly Creek fire blazed through the canyon in western Colorado where it’s located, narrowly missing the iconic clifftop pond but scorching much of the forest around it. It had only been reopened for two months when a massive flood sent logs, rocks, and mud tumbling onto the trail in 2021, closing it again. After another flood in 2023, it was clear the trail, originally built in the 1930s, needed an upgrade. The following May, the Forest Service closed the Hanging Lake Trail one more time to build a new path that officials said they hoped would last for 100 years. Fourteen months and $4.5 million later, that trail reopened to visitors today.
And here’s the thing: It was worth it. Just days before it reopened, Backpacker got a preview of the new Hanging Lake Trail, courtesy of the team that built it. After climbing a mile and change up fresh stone steps, we found ourselves face to face with the eponymous lake’s impossibly clear waters. I could describe it—the way the white noise of the waterfalls echoed without the chatter from the area’s usual crowds, the Steller’s jays flitting around the spruce trees, tearing off the fresh, green buds—but I’d rather let you see it for yourself. Turn on this five-minute ASMR video and bliss out.
Inspired? Make your reservation to visit Hanging Lake here.
The post Bliss Out With Five Minutes of Mountain Waterfalls at Colorado’s Hanging Lake appeared first on Backpacker.
