King Lake via Hessie Trailhead

The normal route from the east side is via the Hessie trailhead outside Nederland Colorado. From the west it is most often accessed via the short trail from Rollins pass, which is open in the summer. As noted above, it is also a lake and area ripe for creating your own adventure. The description will be based on the normal route but feel free to use your imagination and combine off-trail adventures and routes. (From King's lake you can hike up to the divide and walk north along the high lonesome trail and continue along the continental divide to devils thumb pass and back around to complete a wonderful alpine loop, roundtrip distance is ~15 miles with 3,500 ft of elevation gain).

The trail begins at the Hessie trailhead following the signs for King's lake. there is a trail to the right of the road to the Hessie Trailhead that will take you along wooden planks and around the water. The trail goes back to a road and you will pass a sign for the Hessie Townsite being 9,000 feet in elevation. Cross a bridge over the Middle Boulder Creek and then you will arrive at the trailhead, follow the signs for King's Lake. The trail is easy to follow the entire 5.5 miles to the lake.

After about mile 4 the trail opens up a bit more with forest and meadows interspersed. Snow can linger but after the snow melts the flowers can be amazing! This is also the section of trail that can be steep in places. After mile 5 there will be a spur trail that leads to Betty and Bob lakes. These are .5 miles away and also very pretty alpine lakes.

Continue along the trail (or if still snow covered follow the tracks or just continue up the valley) for the remaining .5 miles to the lake. This area can also hold snow late but this results in wet meadows and tundra carpeted with flowers. In some wet areas the flowers can linger into September, which is rare at this altitude. The east and south shores of King's lake are open for exploration and there are many wonderful areas to enjoy the view or grab a snack.

This is where you have a big choice to make: descend the way you came, include the Betty and Bob lake spur, travel up towards Rollins pass and catch the high lonesome trail north for a loop, get off the trail and come up with your own adventure!!