A High-Country Walk Between Seasons
Fall hadn’t quite arrived in Colorado’s high country, but it was beginning to leave clues. A few leaves had turned gold, others had taken on streaks of red, and the grasses surrounding the lake were beginning to fade from their summer green. At the same time, late wildflowers still held onto their color beneath a sky filled with fast-moving clouds.
Bill and I had headed toward Cameron Pass for a hike to Zimmerman Lake, looking for nothing more complicated than a few quiet miles in the mountains. The trail is short—only about a mile to the lake—but by continuing around the shoreline, our hike stretched to roughly three miles round trip. It wasn’t a big-mileage day, but it was exactly the kind of hike that rewards slowing down. With the seasons beginning to shift around us, there was plenty to notice.
Following an Old Road Into the Forest
The Zimmerman Lake Trail begins above 10,000 feet, climbing gradually away from Highway 14 along an old logging road. Almost immediately, the forest closed around us, with spruce and fir shading the trail while grasses grew thick in the small openings between the trees. Sunlight filtered through the canopy in scattered patches, illuminating the mossy forest floor and catching on branches overhead.
Summer was still very much present, but the closer we looked, the more we could see the season beginning to loosen its grip. Ferns and delicate leaves had started turning yellow, while a few plants along the trail were already glowing in shades of orange and gold. Others had shifted into surprisingly vibrant reds, standing out against all the surrounding green.
The trail also offered some of those small details that are easy to miss if you are moving too quickly. A little mushroom pushing its way through pine needles stopped us for a closer look, while a few brilliant purple wildflowers still remained nearby, holding onto the final weeks of the short high-country growing season. It felt like we had caught the landscape in that brief space between summer and fall.
Where the Forest Opens to Water
After about a mile, the trees gave way and Zimmerman Lake appeared ahead of us. At more than 10,000 feet, the lake sits surrounded by forest and high mountain ridges, with the Rawah Wilderness rising beyond the water. Dark evergreens lined the shoreline while rounded peaks stretched beneath layers of dramatic clouds.
We could have turned around there, but instead we continued around the lake. A more primitive path follows portions of the shoreline, winding between forest, grasses, wetlands, and open stretches of water. Adding the loop brought our total hike to roughly three miles and gave us a completely different perspective than simply hiking to the lake and returning the same way.
From the far side, the view opened wide across the water toward the mountain ridges beyond. Grasses along the shoreline bent in the breeze, while shallow pools and small channels threaded their way through the wetter sections near the lake. The landscape felt peaceful and quiet, but there was plenty of life around us once we started paying attention.
Small Lives Around the Lake
The birds seemed to have plenty to say about our arrival. Several little gray Canada jays appeared around the shoreline, hopping between branches, stumps, and the forest floor with the casual confidence of birds that seem perfectly at home around hikers. One perched on a branch above the water while others investigated the ground near old tree stumps, occasionally flitting from one spot to another while keeping a close eye on us.
They were adorable and easily some of the most entertaining residents we encountered along the trail. Out on the lake, waterfowl paddled across the wind-rippled surface, sometimes disappearing into the texture of the water before becoming visible again farther along the shoreline. Between the birds, wildflowers, mushroom, and changing vegetation, there always seemed to be another small detail waiting to be noticed.
A High-Country Fish Story
There is another resident connected to Zimmerman Lake that we never actually saw. According to an interpretive sign at nearby Joe Wright Reservoir, Arctic grayling were introduced into Zimmerman Lake in 1951 from Flathead Lake in Montana. The fish eventually made their way downstream into Joe Wright Reservoir, where they found particularly favorable spawning habitat.
Today, Joe Wright Reservoir supports an important population of Arctic grayling, a distinctive cold-water fish recognizable by its large, sail-like dorsal fin. I loved discovering that connection between the two lakes. We had been walking around Zimmerman Lake noticing everything above the surface—the birds, flowers, changing foliage, and mountain views—while beneath the water was another piece of the landscape’s history that had been unfolding for decades.
Sometimes the most interesting parts of a place are the things you never actually see.
Autumn, Just Beginning
As we made our way around the lake and eventually back toward the trailhead, those small hints of fall seemed easier to spot. Yellow leaves tucked among the green, flashes of red beside the trail, and golden grasses moving in the wind all suggested that the high country was beginning its seasonal transition.
The forest was nowhere near peak autumn color. There were no mountainsides covered in gold and no dramatic explosion of fall foliage, but that was part of what made it beautiful. At high elevation, the seasons often announce themselves gradually. Before the aspens turn entire hillsides yellow, there are these quieter changes—the fading grasses, a few leaves shifting color, cooler air moving through the trees, and the last wildflowers of summer holding on for just a little longer.
You simply have to slow down enough to notice them.
Closing Miles
Zimmerman Lake wasn’t a hike we chose for distance or difficulty. Instead, it became three miles spent wandering through forest, circling a quiet high-country lake, watching birds along the shoreline, discovering a mushroom among the pine needles, and searching for the first subtle signs that another Colorado season was beginning.
There are days for long trails, high summits, and miles that leave your legs exhausted. Then there are days like this one—a quiet trail, a mountain lake, a handful of small discoveries, and the feeling that autumn is waiting just around the corner.
Trail Information
Location: Zimmerman Lake, Cameron Pass area, Colorado
Trail: Zimmerman Lake Trail
Distance: Approximately 3 miles round trip with the lake loop
Distance to Lake: Approximately 1 mile each way
Trailhead Elevation: 10,026 feet
Elevation Gain to Lake: Approximately 453 feet
Difficulty: Moderate
Route: Out-and-back trail with a primitive route around Zimmerman Lake
Terrain: Forested old logging road, shoreline trail, meadows, and wet areas
Highlights: Zimmerman Lake, mountain views, birds and waterfowl, seasonal wildflowers, and early fall color
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