Blue Lakes Pass

I hiked Blue Lakes Pass in Ouray Colorado with a couple of friends recently. It was already a cool morning when we started and I have heard you gain lose 3 1/2° per 1000 feet of elevation gained. We started at approximately 11,000 feet.

After following the jeeping road to Yankee Boy Basin we traversed a few snowfields before getting to the trail-head for Mount Sneffles. The trail was well worn so we didn't need crampons, but we could have used an ice axe for precaution.

The last few hundred meters where the hardest up to the saddle which is at about 13,000 feet. It was very windy on top, so we took a few photos and headed back down deciding to slide down the snowy slopes instead of hiking.

All in all it was a great, relatively short hike, but a very fun experience.

You can also access the pass from East Dallas Road (County Road 7). This is a longer more ambitious hike, and would require longer drive time from Ouray, but is definitely worth it it the summer time.

http://www.ouraytrails.org/trails02.html#bluelakes