Colorado - Day 1: Chicago to Carbondale to Hanging Lake
On Sunday, August 11, 2024, I took a morning flight from Chicago O’Hare to Denver, picked up a mid-size SUV from Enterprise Rent-A-Car at the airport, and drove directly to the Days Inn by Wyndham Carbondale.
I chose to stay at Days Inn by Wyndham Carbondale because it was only a 30-minute drive south of Hanging Lake and about an hour's drive north of Aspen and Maroon Bells, and cost $886.29 for 4 nights in 2024. With it being in between Glenwood Springs and Aspen, Carbondale felt like the perfect location of a city to stay in.
After checking in and changing into hiking clothes, I headed straight out to hike Hanging Lake.
Hanging Lake is currently undergoing a reconstruction project after it was damaged in the 2020 Grizzly Creek Fire. Crews are working to repair and upgrade the trail. Due to that fact, the trail is only available to hikers Friday through Sunday. Reservations are available weekly, with hiking dates and times released every Thursday at 9am MDT. I was able to snag a 5pm reservation and arrived at Hanging Lake just in time. When I arrived, I was told there was a flash flood warning, and everyone had to leave the boardwalk surrounding Hanging Lake by 6:30pm.
I tend to be a bit slower of a hiker, as I like to take a lot of photos and just overall like to take my time and enjoy the scenery. But, since I had a time limit, I made sure to limit the number of photos I took on the way up so that I could have plenty of time available to get all the photos I wanted at Hanging Lake and Spouting Rock, a beautiful waterfall that spouts from a rock face and sits only 200 yards above Hanging Lake.
According to the website, the trail is 1.2 miles one way (2.4 miles out-and-back) with an elevation gain of 1,269 feet, making it to be a fairly steep hike. Yet, my Garmin watch and Google Fit app clocked the out-and-back hike at 4.4 miles. I did start tracking from the restroom, so I may have added some extra distance unintentionally.
I reached the boardwalk around 6:20pm, giving me enough time to walk on the boardwalk surrounding a portion of the lake to get some photos before heading up to Spouting Rock for a few more. The boardwalk doesn’t yet wrap around the entire lake, but according to a worker at Hanging Lake, that’s part of the reconstruction project. Promptly at 6:30pm, I hiked back down to my car. The entire hike took me 2.5 hours to complete.
After leaving Hanging Lake at 7:45pm, I drove to the City Market in Carbondale for groceries, then returned to the hotel to settle in for the night.
