This Colorado Wilderness Is The Best Place To Backpack And Fish Without Crowds In The Rocky Mountains

A remote, northern Colorado wilderness area offers visitors a chance to take in the splendor of the Centennial State's Rocky Mountains scenery, without having to deal with the throngs of tourists at nearby Rocky Mountain National Park. The Mount Zirkel Wilderness, at nearly 160,000 acres, offers everything a national park visitor might expect, but with the opportunity to experience a wild Colorado landscape in glorious solitude. 

Situated just north of Steamboat Springs and its regional airport, the Mount Zirkel Wilderness is a great place for hikers, anglers, and backpackers to escape into the backcountry, where it's easy to get away from the crowds and see some of the state's most rugged mountains. The Mount Zirkel Wilderness is one of America's first congressionally designated wilderness areas, with its boundaries designated shortly after the passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964. This important legislation allowed Congress to identify the nation's most pristine wild landscapes and permanently protect them from future development. 

Unlike Rocky Mountain National Park to the east, which boasts America's highest continuous paved road (with unparalleled scenery), the Mount Zirkel Wilderness is largely free of roads, with motorists only able to drive to a few locations on its fringes, like the North Lake Trailhead on the wilderness area's west side, about an hour's drive from Steamboat Springs. Here, anglers can access the upper reaches of the Elk River, one of Colorado's premier trout streams. For hikers and especially backpackers, the North Lake Trailhead offers access to the Continental Divide Trail, which stretches 21 miles to Buffalo Pass through alpine meadows and along gorgeous glaciated lakes. The Mount Zirkel Wilderness boasts approximately 170 miles of hiking trails, which lead backpackers through the high-elevation backcountry.

With a number of trails leading into the backcountry, the Mount Zirkel Wilderness offers some stellar wild-country fly fishing, particularly in its high, mountain lakes. One short but exhilarating hike into the Mica Lake Basin offers great angling on Mica Lake, where dry flies and streamers tempt some sizable cutthroat trout. 

Another great backcountry lake fishing option starts at the Rainbow Lakes Trailhead about 20 miles west of the small community of Walden, Colorado. Here, a 3.5-mile, one-way trail leads hiking anglers to lower Rainbow Lake. The elevation gain isn't too severe, so it's a good hiking and fishing experience for a beginning backpacker looking for a solid day trip into the mountains to pursue wild trout. Another hike-and-fish option is Lake Katherine, accessible by a challenging 2.3-mile hike starting at the Lone Pine Trailhead, also about 20 miles west of Walden, but the payoff is some excellent backcountry fishing in stunning scenery.

These backcountry lakes don't offer the same kind of fishing that's found in the state's more sprawling lakes and reservoirs, like Blue Mesa Reservoir, Colorado's largest body of water with beaches and endless water fun. Rather, these high-country lakes in the Mount Zirkel Wilderness offer hiking and backpacking anglers the chance to walk away from the crowds at lower-elevation impoundments and experience trout fishing, all amid some of the most stunning scenery in the West. And it's not just about lake fishing, either. Hikers venturing toward both Mica Lake and Lake Katherine can chase trout in the streams they'll cross as they make their way to their chosen lakes. Creek freaks should also try the Gold Creek Trail, particularly in the fall, when the stream's brook trout are active and all colored up in their annual spawning regalia.

The Mount Zirkel Wilderness is definitely wild country, and venturing into its backcountry can be absolutely breathtaking. But not everyone who wants to wander into the wilderness wants to rough it and endure a wilderness campout. For these folks, Steamboat Springs beckons. A well-known Colorado ski town with the most Winter Olympics Athletes, Steamboat offers plenty of lodging options for visitors who don't want to pitch a tent in the middle of nowhere — or for tired backcountry hikers in search of a soft bed and a warm meal after a long, multi-day hike through the Mount Zirkel Wilderness.

Steamboat Springs is about four hours northwest of Denver by car, so visitors coming to this little slice of Yampa County paradise will want to at least make a long weekend out of their stay. With excellent hiking, stellar backcountry fishing, and lots to do in town, a visit to Steamboat is the ideal home base for a Mount Zirkel Wilderness experience. Not only can tourists coming to Steamboat Springs take in some quality mountain-town dining and some of the best breweries in brewery-rich Colorado, it's also high on scenery close to town. 

Visitors should definitely check out the dramatic Fish Creek Falls. This 280-foot waterfall is at the end of a short, quarter-mile walk just a few minutes from downtown Steamboat Springs. This gorgeous Colorado town is a perfect home base for a wilderness fishing and hiking trip. If they're not careful, visitors to this amazing corner of Colorado will find lots of reasons to come back again and again.