Camp Lake

Camp Lake is located on the eastern side of the Rawah Mountains.  To get to it you start from the West Branch Trailhead and follow the West Branch Trail for almost 3 miles until taking the right hand fork on the Camp Lake Trail.  This part of the trail is rocky and steep.  You climb for quite a while and then the trail comes to an abandoned irrigation ditch.  This part is pretty much level and smooth until it branches off again.  In another two miles or so still on a nice easy trail, you reach Camp Lake.  This was one of my favorite rides of the summer.  One reason for this is that there was only one downed tree that we (I was riding Dakota) had to go over.  

We did this ride on the Friday of Labor Day weekend and I should have known better.  I met multiple groups and single people on the trail especially on the West Branch portion.  It's hard to tell in this picture because I took it with my old camera, but there is a group of four guys on the shoreline right in the middle.

 Scree, or talus, is accumulation of broken rock fragments at the base of crags, mountain cliffs, or valley shoulders.  This scree field is horizontal which is odd, but this may not be natural but made by men and have something to do with the old ditch project in the area.

Notes:  the weather was gorgeous, only took Zoe because of the leash law, map had the distance at 7.7 miles one way, but it didn't seem that far