On another day, we chose to hike the Navajo Lake Trail (Forest Service Trail
#635). Navajo Lake
is a hidden mountain lake that sits at an elevation of 11,154 and is the
headwaters for the Dolores River.
It is also part of the Lizard Head Wilderness Area, but is a ways to the
northwest of Lizard Head itself. We accessed the trail by turning off of hwy.
145 at Forest Service Road 535, otherwise known as the West Fork or Dunton
Road, 13 miles north of Dolores. This road is a
well-maintained gravel and dirt road that parallels the West
Dolores River.
About twenty two miles down the road lies an old ghost town called Dunton,
that is now a privately owned community. About a mile past Dunton is the Burro
Bridge campground and one mile past
that is the trailhead for the Navajo Lake Trail. There is ample parking at the
base.
The hike is fairly easy to start at an elevation of 9,350 feet. The trail
crosses the river shortly after the hike begins, then leads through wide-open
meadows in a valley between the mountains. Soon, the climb begins. There are
some steep stretches of switchbacks, but all along the way, the views are
awesome.
At one point, we could see a waterfall known as the West
Falls over a ridge. About halfway
to the lake, there is a junction where the Kilpacker Trail meets up with the
Navajo Lake Trail. The Kilpacker Trail circles back south and winds up at
Morgan Camp. We continued on our route to the lake. Not far from the lake, the
Woods Lake Trail, which leads to another high altitude lake, junctions with the
trail.
The last part before arriving at the lake was pretty steep and winding, but
alas, we made it to the lake. The altitude is so high that the landscape at
ground level around the lake is green with conifers, but the basin walls that
surround the lake are bare rock. The lake itself is fairly small, but pretty and
clean, and although I don’t fish, I assume the fishing would be good.
Navajo Lake Trail actually continues on to the east and north of the lake
where it intersects with the Bilk Creek trail mentioned above. Again, we
planned a turn around trip, so we retraced our steps and returned to our
starting point. Round trip, the hike was about six miles total.