Day 2: Buck Creek to Big Arroyo Junction 18 miles / 5600ft gain

Today was long. Like, really long. We checked out Bearpaw campground and I was pretty surprised at how clean the pit toilet is. There were a lot of deer roaming around. I was glad we camped at Buck Creek even though that makes it a longer day today. The hike from Hamilton Lake up to Precipice Lake felt like it took forever. We did meet a super nice park ranger who checked our permit—he was friendly and chill/ We made many stops on the way up from Hamilton lake.

The tunnel was magnificent. Seeing it made me appreciate the amount of maintenance and engineering by trail workers who made it possible for everyone to hike here. Getting to Precipice Lake was cool—I’ve always wanted to see it in person. The lake was beautiful, surrounded by granite, and definitely a bucket list spot. There was some snow past the lake, but nothing too bad. Then we had some flatter snow hiking over sun cups, which was easy enough.

The mosquitos though...they were awful. Basically nonstop from the Great Western Divide down to camp at Big Arroyo Junction. We got there late—like 6pm—and still had two miles left. Knowing food takes longer to cook at altitude, we made Pad Thai on the go. We just hiked and ate to avoid getting eaten alive ourselves. Camp was quiet though—we were the only ones there.

Camped at Camp: Big Arroyo Junction (9500ft)