Beautiful Backpacking on Rawah Trail | Rawah Lakes and Sandbar Lakes

Backpacking Rawah Trail is a less travelled adventure in the beautiful, remote Rawah Wilderness. A less busy alternative to the more popular West Branch Trail, Rawah Trail climbs up from the Laramie River and enters the wilderness. It then leads to several sets of pretty alpine lakes with side trail options to lengthen the adventure. Enjoy the gorgeous glacially carved landscape with its mix of high peaks and cirque lakes without the crowds! Read on to find out more about backpacking Rawah Trail and the beauty to be found in this remote wilderness.

Quick Info for Backpacking Rawah Trail

Directions: Travel 11 miles northwest of Fort Collins on U.S. Highway 287 to Colorado Highway 14. Turn left on CO 14 and continue for 52 miles to County Road 103/Laramie River Road. Turn right onto Laramie River Road and continue north for 13 miles to the parking area on the right and the trailhead will be on the left.

Difficulty: Moderately strenuous

Total Distance: Rawah Trail to Twin Crater Lakes is about 24 mile hike. Our route ended up being about 21.5 miles total.

Good to Know: There are vault toilets at the parking area. And there are so many great dispersed camping spots all along Laramie River Road. Campfires prohibited above 10,800 feet.

Itinerary Breakdown:

Day 1: Rawah Trailhead to the river past Grassy Pass – about 14 miles
Turn around point to Sandbar Lakes to Camp Spot at Lost Lake – about 7 miles

Day 2: Camp Spot at Lost Lake to Rawah Trailhead – about 7.5 miles

Our Experience Backpacking Rawah Trail

Day One

We headed out from our camp spot near Gould, travelled along the 14 before heading up Laramie River Road. On the way we were lucky enough to watch a bull moose cross the road in front of us. Such magnificent creatures! As we continued on, seeing the widespread devastation from the Cameron Peak fire was a bit more sobering.

Along Laramie River Road we noticed many great spots for dispersed camping. Eventually we passed West Branch trailhead and were surprised to see that it was nearly full at 8:30 am on a Tuesday. Then we
reached our destination, Rawah Trailhead and it was completely empty.

Hitting the Trail

We geared up and hit the trail! Backpacking Rawah Trail begins across the road from the trailhead next to
Rawah Ranch. This first section is pretty mellow as it passes through private property lined with fencing
and plenty of private property signs.

The trail begins to climb and reaches a nice wooden bridge that crosses the stream. If you look up the stream there is a nice waterfall in the distance.

We continued to climb through the forest and finally we were greeted by the Rawah Wilderness boundary sign.

From the wilderness sign to the first junction with Lost Lake Trail (about 6 miles), Rawah Trail continues to climb up through the forest. I found this section to be of little excitement so I was glad when we finally reached the Lost Lake trail junction.

We decided to eat lunch and drop our heavy backpacks here at the junction as we continued on to Rawah
Lakes and beyond.

After the junction is when our backpacking Rawah Trail started to get good, in my opinion. First the trail skirted a large open meadow where we were hoping to see some animals.

Then we followed Rawah Trail up through the woods, past numerous mushrooms, over a stream crossing and continued past the junction with Camp Lake Trail.

Reaching the Rawah Lakes

Now the views started to open up and we could see the beauty up ahead. Before long, we were standing at the shore of Rawah Lake 1. We thought that the first Rawah Lake was beautiful! It had a peaceful, forested shoreline with big mountain views creating a gorgeous landscape view. Excited to see more, we kept moving along.

And it didn’t take long until the trail followed the shoreline along Rawah Lake 2. The second of the Rawah
Lakes also had a forested shoreline situated in a serene setting.

We continued the now mellow climb on Rawah Trail up to the incredibly scenic alpine area. As far as scenery goes, from here on was my favorite part of backpacking Rawah Trail. Next, the trail brought us to Rawah Lake 3 and it was pretty magnificent. To the left was a large waterfall leading down the mountain into the beautiful lake. And the mountain backdrop made it a captivating sight.

Hike it Later – Pin it Now!

After taking in the beauty at the third Rawah Lake, we followed Rawah Trail up Grassy Pass. As we gained elevation, the views looking back upon the lake were great.

Once we made the ascent up Grassy Pass, there was a side trail that looked as though it would meet up with the top of the waterfall we had seen from below. So we followed it, crossed the stream and took a break, enjoying the scenery.

We thought about making our way to Rawah Lake 4 because it looked as though it was in the cirque we could see up ahead. But our plan was to make it all the way to the two Crater Lakes and we still had a ways to go. Plus the return trip back to our backpacks before it got dark. So we decided to keep moving in that direction.

Once back on the main trail, the scenery was spectacular. And more and more of the surrounding beauty was being revealed to us as we covered some distance. We made the long, steep descent into the next valley and reached the river – North Fork West Branch Laramie River.

That’s when we looked at the time, our mileage and considered how far we had yet to go to reach Crater Lakes plus the miles back to our backpacks. And we realized we just didn’t have enough daylight. So this is where we turned around. Though we wished we would have made that decision back at the top of Grassy Pass instead of all the way down here haha. Also, in hindsight, we could have taken the time to check out Rawah Lake 4 if we would have known… but oh well. So we climbed all the way back up out of the valley back to top of Grassy Pass.

Sandbar Lakes Trail

On the way back to our backpacks, we decided to take a different trail back – Sandbar Lakes Trail. The
trail descended to a split towards either Upper or Lower Sandbar Lakes. We took the left and checked out
Lower Sandbar Lake first. Though there was no dramatic scenery around it, it was a very pretty little
lake.

From here, we headed back to the trail sign and continued following Upper Sandbar Lakes Trail. We were
pleasantly surprised when we reached Upper Sandbar Lake. The lake is large, lined in trees with pretty
mountain scenery in the background. We hadn’t planned on seeing the Sandbar Lakes when we first planned on backpacking Rawah Trail but it was a great addition. Oh, and we spotted a couple humans on the opposite shoreline – the first that we’d seen since we started hiking!

As we continued along Sandbar Lakes Trail we spotted two deer and got to see another small lake. The sun was getting low as we hurried back to then along the main Rawah Trail and finally made it back to our
backpacks. We strapped ’em on and headed to Lost Lake to set up camp for the night. We had no idea what to expect from Lost Lake but we were hoping for the best!

Lost Lake Trail

After the nearly 20 miles we’d already done today, we had about one mile to go. Lost Lake Trail started out as an extremely steep climb, of course. After a very slow struggle up the trail, it thankfully leveled out.
We hurried past three small ponds hoping that Lost Lake was actually a lake. As we neared Lost Lake, the
trail then became a very steep descent. Once we got down the trail we could see the lake and it did not
disappoint. We had to follow the shoreline a bit further before we spotted a nice flat area to set up camp
for the night.

Before the sun left for the night, we checked out the lake real quick. And it was beautiful! It looked
like a great place to wake up in the morning. We set up camp and ate a well deserved dinner as night fell. We fell asleep to the incredible sound of elk bugles.

Day Two of Backpacking Rawah Trail

After some much needed rest, we had a beautiful and peaceful morning taking in the scenery and enjoying the solitude. We explored Lost Lake a bit before packing up our backpacks and getting back on the trail.

The way back was ground we had already covered but with a few surprises! Still on Lost Lake Trail, we
were so excited to spot two elk. And after we had returned to Rawah Trail, we spotted an adorable little
fox.

One other thing that I enjoyed about backpacking Rawah Trail was how many mushrooms we saw along the way! There were not only a lot of them, but quite a variety too. It was hard to resist taking pictures of all the cute ones (which was most of them haha).

The final 6 miles of backpacking Rawah Trail honestly felt like it took forever. And by the time we got
to the trailhead, I felt like all of my toes had been ran over by a car haha. All in all, we saw an impressive number of lakes on this adventure and some seriously gorgeous scenery! And we only saw two other
people the entire time!

The one thing I didn’t enjoy about backpacking Rawah Trail though was how unremarkable the first (and last) few miles were. I guess it doesn’t usually take several miles of hiking before I start enjoying it. Just
my personal thoughts and something I would have taken into consideration had I known.

Hopefully we’ll get a chance to return to the Rawah Wilderness and make it all the way to Crater Lakes and any other lakes we can squeeze in!

Thanks for Reading!

If you’d like to see more of our hikes and adventures, check out the articles below:

• Hiking Teocalli Peak in Crested Butte
• Buffalo Pass Lakes Loop
• Sierra Buttes Lookout Tower
• Secret Side of Joshua Tree

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