The picture above is from the shore of Turquoise Lake near the Belle of Colorado campground. The Turquoise Trail begins on the south eastern end of the lake near the damn, and works it's way north along the eastern boundary of the lake before turning west toward the May Queen Campground at the far end of the lake. Eastern portion of the trail is fast, flowing, and flat. Once you round the curve of the lake the trail turns more rolling and rocky.
Great views along the eastern portion of the lake. The mountain range to the middle of the picture is Mount Massive, and the peak to the left is Mt. Elbert, the highest point in Colorado.
After arriving at May Queen Campground ride out of the campground to CR 9 and take a left. After about a mile and a half of an easy uphill grade intersect with CR 4 which is a dirt road with signage to Hagerman pass, which is 7 miles up the road. Climb along an easy grade for 3 miles, before turning steeply upward for the final 4 miles. This stretch of road is a 4wd road and is extremely rocky, slow going up to the pass.
Small valley on the way up Hagerman Pass. The road loops back to climb the ridge on the right toward the head of the valley.
Hagerman Pass road as you climb above timberline. The actual pass is just to the left of the ridge, between the snow fields.
The view down the western slope of the pass.
11,925' let's just call it 12,000' shall we?
On the way back I turned onto FSR 105A for a gently ascending, but fairly rocky ride up to descend a section of the Continental Divide Trail that runs between the Massive and Holy Cross Wildernesses. I didn't take any pictures of the trail due to fatigue setting in, technical nature of the descent on the upper portion, and rolling rocky terrain of the lower portion that ends at the Timberline Lake trail just above May Queen Campground. The above is a picture looking back east towards Leadville with the Mosquito Range in the background.
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