Beaver Lake

Beaver Lake is a trail that leaves from the Beaver Creek Resort near Avon in Colorado. It is an excellent way to get out into the woods and see some nature if you happen to be staying at the resort or passing through and want to stretch your legs. Beaver Creek Resort is a ski area owned and operated by Vail Resorts, which also owns Keystone, Breckenridge, and Vail nearby.

The resort was originally conceived to host the 1976 Winter Olympics in Denver, but the city backed out and the project was scrapped. In the early 1980s this plan reemerged and Beaver Creek was born. The resort has since hosted the World Ski Championships in 1989, 1999, and 2015, along with the Birds of Prey World Cup downhill ski races early in the season.

The trail itself is mostly forested with some minor sun exposure in the second half. There is no parking near the trailhead, so you will need to park at the resort’s public lot and begin the trail by walking through the Five Senses Trail, which terminates at the trailhead for Beaver Lake. This short forested walk weaves through the forest along the paved road until it transitions into the Beaver Lake Trail that, unsurprisingly, stays alongside Beaver Creek to the lake and beyond.

Once on the Beaver Lake Trail, the trail stays about as wide as a dirt road until passing through some ski runs and eventually narrowing into singletrack. A long climb amid peaceful aspen and pine forests makes this an enjoyable stroll to get away from the resort. There will be a few small clearings and a pond that, along with the Five Senses Trail, make good wildflower viewing in the early summer. Flowers range from the common dandelion early in the trail to orange alpine wallflowers (Erysimum kotschyanum) and white northern fairy-candelabra (Androsace septentrionalis).

Shortly before the lake the trail will enter the Holy Cross Wilderness, where the canyon gets narrower and the trail gets a bit steeper alongside the creek. This only continues for a few hundred meters until entering a clearing alongside the lake. The trail continues well past the lake to eventually arrive at Turquoise Lakes and Grouse Mountain. The hike down follows the same path to return you back to the Five Senses Trail and Beaver Creek Resort.