Backpacking Colorado’s Holy Cross Wilderness

If you’ve ever skied Vail’s Blue Sky Basin, you know Mount of the Holy Cross. It’s the big mountain staring you in the face when you turn right riding up Chair 37, the gusts blowing up and over the lip of Lover’s Leap at your back doing their best to freeze you into better ideas.

The 14er ranks as the tallest peak in Eagle County and is the northernmost 14er of the high-alpine Sawatch Range. It gets its name from its distinctive snowfield on its eastern face, a cross-like pattern that’s more visible during the late-spring and early-summer snowmelts than it is during winter.

Because of its distinct cross-like snowfield (and subsequent name), it became something of a pilgrimage destination once the first Christians ‘discovered’ it in the 1860s and artists (and photographers) were able to capture its image and share it back east. Its fame grew to the point where President Herbert Hoover designated it as Holy Cross National Monument in 1929, a status it held until President Harry Truman disbanded its monument status in 1950 (and returned it to the White River National Forest).

The mountain was still the mountain, of course, and the surrounding White River and San Isabel National Forests were some of the most pristine pine and spruce forests in the Rocky Mountains, so it’s no surprise that the area was picked to be preserved as a designated Wilderness area in 1980. As it stands today, the Holy Cross Wilderness spans nearly 123,000 acres just south of resorts like Vail and Beaver Creek, though its presence that close to such popular winter havens doesn’t damn it to being a crowded mess.

If anything, it’s the Colorado Wilderness with the most spectacular alpine lakes around.

The Hiking Routes

Unlike so many of the better-known Wilderness areas in Colorado, there’s no major through-route hiking that creates a central corridor off which spur hikes exist. Yes, both the Colorado Trail and Continental Divide Trail (CDT) pass through the far southeastern corner of the Holy Cross Wilderness on 7.1 miles of shared trail, but its presence on the opposite side of the Continental Divide as the rest of the Wilderness means it’s somewhat in its own world down there.

The standard route to the top of the 14er itself requires a roughly 11.25 mile round trip that climbs over 5,600 feet along the north ridge. That begins at the Half Moon/Fall Creek Trailhead off Tigiwon Road just south of Minturn, Colorado, and is a standard Class 2 climb should you choose to pursue it.

Beyond that, though, is where the Holy Cross Wilderness gets its backpacking identity. Whereas many Wilderness areas get pigeon-holed into hosting one go-to loop hike (a la the Zirkel Circle or Buffalo Peaks Loop) or a straightforward destination to reach (like Chicago Basin in the Weminuche), Holy Cross mostly boasts a variety of shorter, unconnected destinations that make for perfect out and back overnight trips.

Don’t get me wrong, there is a ‘loop’ you can piecemeal together, provided you’re willing to walk some 7 miles along Tigiwon Road at either the end or outset (or find a way to drop a second car). Heading out of the Cross Creek Trailhead just off US-24 south of Minturn, you can follow the Cross Creek Trail along the western slopes of Mount of the Holy Cross and head south towards Missouri Lakes, a stretch that’ll require some ~16 miles and an ascent of Missouri Pass to pull off. To make it a loop, you’ll pick up the Fancy Pass Trail past the Missouri Lakes Basin andfollow it back up the ridge before veering east along the Holy Cross Jeep Road that takes you through the historical (and abandoned) Holy Cross City. From there, you’ll find the Hunky Dory Trailhead that puts you heading north along Fall Creek Trail and the eastern slopes of Mount of the Holy Cross as you head back north to finish the loop at Half Moon/Fall Creek Trailhead (and the Tigiwon Road walking section).

That’s a roughly 38 mile loop, should you choose to spend a good portion of it doing some road walking.

If road walking isn’t your thing, however, the rest of Holy Cross Wilderness features dozens of straightforward out and back trails that follow a pretty typical pattern: trailheads somewhere in the vicinity of 10,000 feet above sea level and 3 to 5 mile climbs up 1,500 to 2,000 feet until you reach a pristine alpine like flanked by mountains soaring over 13,000 feet.

Of those, Mystic Island Lake and Lake Charles stand out as gems. Starting outside the Wilderness’ western boundary south of Edwards, Colorado at the Lake Charles trailhead, the Lake Charles trail pushes you up East Brush Creek for 3.7 miles before you reach an upper basin that houses both Lake Charles and, further up trail, Mystic Island Lake. Fools Peak (12,947 feet) and Eagle Peak (13,043) flank the southern section of the trail (and the lakes themselves), and in most years do a fine job of keeping the southern sun from melting the snow in that basin as early as the rest of the state. As such, the window to backpack in and spend a night or two up at the lakes is shorter than in other parts of the state, but timing it after last year’s snow melts and before this year’s rolls in gives you access to one of the prettiest basins around.

Just on the other side of the wall formed by Fools Peak and Eagle Peak sit a series of lakes in a similar basin-fashion. Furthest up among them are the Strawberry Lakes, which drain progressively westward into Fairview Lakes, Halfmoon Lake, Eagle Lake, and Woods Lake via Lime Creek. They’re accessible from the Eagle Lake Trailhead off Woods Lake Road south of Edwards, and since the trail past Eagle Lake (2.4 miles in) isn’t usually maintained that basin provides a bit more route-finding and seclusion than you may find elsewhere.

Along the eastern edge of the Wilderness sits Whitney Lake, a nearly 5 mile round-trip hike that takes you to the runoff pool below Whitney Peak (13,271). From the north, each of Lower and Upper Turquoise Lakes can be reached from the Beaver Lake Trail out of Beaver Creek resort or West Grouse Creek from just north of Minturn. In the southern section of the Wilderness sits Lonesome Lake at the end of the eponymous Lonesome Lake Trail out of the further eponymous Lonesome Lake Trailhead, and a roughly 10 mile round-trip hike will get you out there (and likely make you the only person there).

New York Lake! Buffalo Lake! Grouse Lake! Josephine Lake! The abundance of cirques that fill and stay filled tucked beneath behemoth, craggy peaks is virtually endless in the Holy Cross Wilderness, and you could spend a month picking and choosing which ones to backpack into for overnight trips.

If You Go…

• Always practice Leave No Trace principles when in Wilderness areas.
• It should be noted that campfires within the Holy Cross Wilderness are limited to elevations below 11,000 feet. So, while you can camp at many of the lakes I mentioned here (at least 100 feet away from shore, per USFS regulations), you won’t be allowed to have campfires at several as they’re above the 11,000 foot threshold.
• There are more specific regulations for various sections of the Wilderness, specifically within the Missouri Creek and Fancy Creek watersheds. For more on those details, I’ll refer you to the USFS and Department of Agriculture’s listed prohibitions.
• For my money, the best map of the area is National Geographic Trails Illustrated #149 (Eagles Nest/Holy Cross Wilderness).
• While there are numerous spots within the Wilderness where there won’t be reliable cell service, much of the northern section is close enough in proximity to Vail and Edwards where there is. Obviously, you can just turn your phone off and your surroundings will have you feeling as remote as anywhere, but if being slightly more plugged-in to the rest of the world is your thing (if you’ve got young kids at home for the night and you want to be reachable, for instance), that’s a pertinent thing to point out here.