Chambers Lake is the big water of the upper Poudre — a reservoir of around 255 acres sitting above 9,000 feet just east of Cameron Pass, about an hour up Highway 14 from the mouth of the canyon. It is managed for a genuine mix of fish: rainbow and cutthroat trout, lake trout, and kokanee salmon, which is a rarer catch this high up. There is room here for a boat and plenty of shoreline for anyone fishing from the bank.

A concrete boat ramp sits down in the campground, though it is an electric-motors-only, no-wake lake. Worth knowing: Chambers is a working irrigation reservoir and gets drawn down over the summer, so the ramp can go high and dry by late season. Early summer, when the water is up and the ice has just come off, is a fine time to be here.

The Water

Good to Know

• A valid Colorado fishing license is required, and standard statewide limits apply — always confirm the current rules before you fish.
• Electric motors only and no wake; the concrete boat ramp is in the campground — but Chambers is an irrigation reservoir drawn down through the summer, so the ramp may be unusable by late season.
• Chambers sits on national-forest / CPW water, where ice fishing is allowed in winter (unlike Larimer County’s Front Range reservoirs). Check the ice, and never go out alone.
• The lakeside Chambers Lake Campground makes an easy basecamp for the upper Poudre and Cameron Pass.