Emmaline Lake Trail

Emmaline Lake starts easy and ends hard-won, and that arc is the whole appeal. The first few miles ride an old jeep road up through Pingree Park — dry underfoot for the first two miles, then shaded by regrowing lodgepole and aspen that rose out of an old burn, with Fall Creek chattering alongside once you reach it. By the time you spill into Cirque Meadows around mile 3.5, the grade has been so forgiving you may forget you've been climbing at all: pause here for the wide-open view and, in season, meadows thick with wildflowers.

Past the meadows the trail crosses into the Comanche Peak Wilderness and a designated Travel Zone, and the character changes fast. The forest thins to stunted timber and open, rocky ground where the tread braids, fades, and gets genuinely hard to follow — the last half mile below Cirque Lake is a confusing web of paths that asks for some rock scrambling and a good eye for cairns. Two lakes wait at the top, cupped under the ridgeline. Come ready for real alpine country: watch the afternoon sky for lightning above treeline, give the local moose a wide berth, and remember this is burn ground where trees still fall and small storms can push sudden water far downstream.

Trail Facts

Getting There

From Ted's Place, drive 26.5 miles up CO-14 to Pingree Park Road at mile marker 96.1, cross the Cache la Poudre River, and follow the Pingree Park Road 15.9 miles. Take the turnoff to the Tom Bennett Campground, just below the CSU Mountain Campus, and continue 0.3 mile to the trailhead. Park at Trailhead-1 (about 0.2 mile past the campground entrance) or in a pullout just beyond; a high-clearance vehicle can continue 0.5 mile up a rough but passable old road to the locked gate at Trailhead-2. Seasonal toilets & stock water are at Tom Bennett Campground. In winter the campground road (FR 145) isn't always plowed — you may have to snowshoe or ski the last 0.3 mile in.

Know Before You Go

• Burn country. The 2020 Cameron Peak Fire (Colorado's largest, nearly 209,000 acres) touched this trail — heaviest from about mile 2 to 2.8. Watch for falling trees, hidden stump holes, rockslides, and flash flooding that can hit far downstream after even a small storm.
• Wilderness rules. Past the mile-3.5 boundary you're in a Travel Zone: no bikes, no motorized use, group size capped at 12, wood fires prohibited — self-contained chemical stoves only.
• The top half mile is a puzzle. Above Cirque Meadows the tread braids and fades; the final stretch below Cirque Lake is a web of faint paths with some rock scrambling. Look for small cairns and don't count on an obvious trail.
• Moose & lightning. There's a large moose population through here — keep your distance — and the alpine ground near Emmaline, Cirque, and Upper Cirque Lakes is dangerously exposed in an afternoon thunderstorm.
• Dogs on a hand-held leash with hikers at all times.
• Water & dry start. The first 2 miles are dry; after that, creek crossings at 2.2, 3.3, 4.5, 4.8, 5.0, and 5.4 miles and the lakes themselves — treat everything before you drink.
• Stay on trail early. The first 2.1 miles cross CSU property — don't go off-trail or camp there; camping is fine (100+ ft from trail and water) only after the first Fall Creek crossing.