Trappers Lake is located about 40 miles east of Meeker in
the Flat Tops Wilderness. You follow the White River on a really good dirt road
through some beautiful country. About half way there you come upon some pretty
amazing housing developments with private fishing, golf courses and horse
arenas. We saw a moose calf in the
river. I also saw the best name for a ranch ever…. “Cattle Lack Ranch”
Past all those houses you begin to see signs for the Rio
Blanco Ranch that go on and on and on and on…for miles. It’s one of the biggest
spreads I’ve seen outside of Wyoming. We finally saw the “ranch house” (can you
say huge) and the guest “cabins” around their private lake just before we
turned off onto the last road up to Trappers Lake.
There was a huge forest fire in the area in 2002, the Big
Fish wildfire (caused by lightning) and it resulted in a lot of devastation. As
it is a wilderness area, no mechanized equipment can go into the area to clear
the burned timber. The campgrounds are beautiful with lots of pine trees, but
most of the area around the lake and up the slopes has a lot of dead and downed
timber. I can just imagine what it used to look like as it is still very
beautiful. This web site has a great
picture of the lake before the fire and lots of facts. Trappers Lake information
The lake is one of the largest natural lakes in Colorado and
it is a “wild” trout lake. It is not stocked and has native cutthroat and brook
trout. The brook trout are the invasive species, so you can keep all of them.
Fish and game harvest the eggs and milk from the cutthroats to use in the fish
hatcheries to stock lakes and reservoirs all over Colorado. Jim caught an 18”
Brook trout the 1st day he and Gary went fishing! I’ve never seen
one that big (most are 8-12”).
Arthur Carhart, a US Forest Service official, visited the
lake in 1919. He was hired to make a survey for a road around the lake. He
became entranced with the area and became an advocate for wilderness
preservation. The area around the lake was put largely off
limits to development in 1920, due to his recommendation. It was the first such
Forest Service property to be set aside in this manner. Because of this, some
considered it the birthplace of the U.S. Wilderness Area system. The Flat Tops Wilderness is
the 2nd largest in Colorado. For more on wilderness areas visit www.wilderness.net. It is a great site.
As I said the campgrounds are really nice and are at the
edge of the wilderness area. They are in the National Forest. The lake is
inside the boundary, so you have to carry everything to the lake, including
your boat (no motors). It is a ¼ mile down to the lake. That’s not so bad; it’s
the climb back up! (we are at over 9000 ft in elevation). There are many criss-crossing
trails all around the lake so it is wonderful to just get out and hike around.
Our big adventure was to hike to Little Trappers Lake (higher
than 9600 ft); about 2 miles up the mountain and at least 4 miles back down.
(that’s what it felt like) I think it
was harder coming down….the rocks seemed to be looser and my wading boots weren’t
meant for hiking! But it was amazing…the wildflowers were in full bloom and we
were the only ones there. I caught a nice cutthroat on my 2nd cast
and that was it for the rest of the day, but we had a lot of fun!
We stayed 7 days, fishing and hiking and enjoying the smell
of the pine trees. We left on Friday June 22nd and headed for Craig
and the Yampa River and maybe a visit with friends in Steamboat Springs.
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