Echo Lake to Idaho Springs Reservoir is a 6.6 mile moderately trafficked out and back trail located near Georgetown, Colorado that features a lake and is rated as moderate. The trail is primarily used for hiking, walking, nature trips, and birding and is best used from March until October. Dogs are also able to use this trail but must be kept on leash.
Dogs on leash
Hiking
Nature trips
Walking
Bird watching
Forest
Lake
Views
Wild flowers
August 6, 2020
July 25, 2020July 22, 2020Beautiful views, shaded, rocky and steep at times. Went on a Wednesday morning and it was pretty busy.
July 12, 2020Amazing trail and sights, but super crowded.
June 27, 2020Beautiful views, but trail was packed and is narrow in spots. Can also be shorter and be 4 miles instead of 6.
June 27, 2020June 7, 2020Very heavy traffic on the weekends.
June 7, 2020Too busy for our liking - even by 8 am. Nice views.
June 6, 2020Amazing views. Reservoir is beautiful.
June 5, 2020Love this hike. Gets busy tho
June 1, 2020Really nice, short hike with beautiful lake views!
May 30, 2020Quite a bit of shade. A very moderate hike, but path is super narrow with steep drop offs ; no social distancing possible. Large groups hiking. Lots of medium sized rocks which activate your brain constantly on where to step next, but good grip, not too many tiny rolling rocks. Bathrooms at the bottom. Almost no parking left when I got there at 10. Had to turn around early because a storm started to roll in.
May 13, 2020Still a little snow on the trail but other than that it was beautiful. Traction might be helpful on the snowfield between the upper and lower lake but, I managed without it.
April 17, 2020April 9, 2020It was only 3.5 miles out and back. People were saying a couple more miles to Chicago Lake though, which we didn't do. Spikes helped even though it was slushy due to lots of up and down, narrow paths. My husband had trail runners (rubber spikes) and he slid more but felt perfectly fine. Nice elevation. Cool air but sunny so we warmed up. The mile stretch up the road to the reservoir was uphill in slushy snow and it was a leg burner.
April 5, 2020This was a beautiful trail! It starts out a narrow trail along the side of the mountain with Gorgeous views of the mountains. Your descend a fair distance and then hike up a snowed out road to the reservoir that faces a beautiful set of jagged mountains in the distance where the Chicago lakes are situated. Perfect workout with great views through out! Very snowy and slushy, spikes help but overall somewhat slippery.
February 2, 2020little warm up for what's to ensue for Evans
September 8, 2019Beautiful views of the lake. The first part of the hike is on the way down so it kind of sucks to have to finish going back up, but that's a personal preference. I recommend this trail for someone looking to acclimate to higher altitudes.
August 12, 2019Nice short and great way to start the morning. This is technically part of the Chicago lakes trail. Even though the parking lot is small, parking is not an issue as many irked in the side if the road
May 19, 2019Great trail! Some steep edges form time to time make it a little scary for certain hikers, but the views are worth it!
April 7, 2019Trail is snow covered definitely need yak tracks or micro spikes. Also recommend gaiters as the trail is a bit slushy and it’s easy to post hole even on the packed parts of the trail depending where you step. Didn’t make it all the way up to Chicago Lakes but imagine snowshoes would be helpful if you were given frequency of post holing on the packed part of the trail.
February 22, 2019Hiked some of Chicago Lakes trail, some off trail, around Echo Lake and some of the Resthouse trail. It was DEEP, DEEP snow! Windy in the morning, but nice by the afternoon. Barb joined me.
December 2, 2018The actual track is to follow the signs for Chicago Lakes, there is no indicator for Idaho Springs Reservoir so I got confused right off the bat. Also, Squaw Pass road is shoulder-to-shoulder snow and ice about 3-4 miles from the trailhead...probably best to use AWD or SUV vehicle to access. Lake and reservoir are both frozen and beautiful! very very cold and windy at the reservoir so dress warmly. Many slippery and treacherous spots only inches from a steep grade cliff, please be careful and GO SLOW. Overall, an amazing hike with gorgeous views, but maybe best left to the experienced during the winter.
