With over two thousand lakes throughout Colorado, you can fill every weekend with a new expedition. We are on a mission to profile as many Colorado lake hikes as we can. Our favorites are the high mountain paternoster lakes. These are a series of tiered lakes connected by mountain streams, each lake spilling into the other, creating cascades and waterfalls along the way. Rocky Mountain National Park is full of these. Explore the trail profiles below and come back as we add more lake hikes near Denver.
Aaron Johnson has been hiking in Colorado for over 20 years. The owner and editor of Dayhikes Near Denver, Aaron writes every trail profile as a local guide who has hiked hundreds of miles of trails along the Front Range and deep in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado.