Lake Stuart, Horseshoe Lake & Colchuck Lake — Thursday, Sep. 11, 2025

If you haven't heard already, thanks to cuts to the Nation Forest Service (courtesy of DOGE), the number of rangers managing the entirety of the Enchantments has been reduced from 11 people to only one. This has led to an increase in trash, toilet paper blooms, and surface pooping due to overflowing privies. There's also been an increase in calls for SAR due to unprepared hikers. Volunteer groups are doing what they can to fill the gap and educate people on the difficulty of the hike to Colchuck but it's not enough. With this in mind, please learn and apply Leave No Trace principles, be prepared to pack out your own trash (not just from the trail, but also from the toilet at the trailhead), and pick up trash you find along the way if you're able.

Spent two nights at Lake Stuart. Arrived at the trailhead about 12:30pm on Thursday. The sign at the bridge before the trailhead said the lot was full but there was plenty of overnight parking available and a few day use spots available as well. There was no one parked down the road yet. There was some toilet paper in the bathroom. There is a trash can in the bathroom but be prepared to take your trash with you if it's full.

Hike to the turn off to Colchuck was uneventful, passed several day hikers coming back from Colchuck. Largely uneventful from here to Stuart Lake as well but there were a few more downed trees from last summer. We didn't encounter any other hikers after leaving the Colchuck overlap. I found a couple ripe thimble berries but they were already rather dry.

At the lake, there was a large group camped at one of the first sites (4-5 tents). We were able to snag the spot I had last year and had it to ourselves both nights. Another group was camped at the far west site with the big rock. We swam in the lake and had a leisurely evening.

In the morning, we took off for Horseshoe Lake. The trail is fairly distinct most of the way. There were a couple times that I was unsure of which way to go but the cairns, GPS, and getting a high vantage point from atop a log were helpful. (Incidentally, I only saw 3, maybe 4 cairns the whole day). From the west end of Stuart Lake to the point at which you start the uphill, I counted 160+ trees down across the trail (this included a lot of small ones that you barely had to think about to step over). On the climb, we encountered 30 downed trees. During this portion there were also a few spots where we had a scramble short sections of rock, often using at least one hand. The climb was challenging and we took our time. One thing to be aware of this time of year is that the fireweed are releasing their seed. They float on the wind like dandelion seeds and they release easily as you brush past them and they cling to every surface, including your nostrils and lips - I would consider bringing a face mask or neck gaiter to pull over your nose and mouth to prevent inhaling the seeds.

Once through with the climb, we headed straight for Jack Lake. I attempted to traverse the boulder field - it's doable but my companion was not as confident moving over this terrain so we backtracked to more solid ground and skirted around the boulders the rest of the way. Jack Lake was completely dry, so not worth the extra time to get there this time of year. We retraced our steps to Horseshoe Lake. We dropped our stuff on a beach and swam across to sun ourselves on some boulders on the opposite shore. We spent 2.5-3 hours at the lake before heading back down and didn't see anyone else the whole time.

On the way down, I decided to count how many of the down trees were troublesome (ie they caused a moderate to significant slowing of my stride). I often counted a complex of trees as one. Using this criteria, there were 86 troublesome trees (more or less) between Horseshoe Lake and Stuart Lake (the vast majority were on the flat section). Most of these we stepped or climbed over, but I went under 14 of them and around 3 of them. There were some where you could go over or under depending on your preference. It took us about the same amount of time to go up as it took us to go down.

Back at Stuart, we swam again and had another leisurely evening.

It was hazy most of the trip, especially on Thursday. I could smell smoke a couple times. But overall much better than I expected considering the proximity of the Labor Mountain fire. We saw helicopters flying back and forth several times of Thursday.

We had deer walk through our campsite several times. The chipmunks/squirrels do not seem to be habituated to human food here - let's keep it that way!

On Saturday, I counted the number of trees down between Stuart Lake and the junction with Colchuck Lake trail. I counted 24 down (we went around 3, under 7, and over 14).

On our way out on Saturday, we met a couple groups heading to Stuart Lake. On the overlap with Colchuck, we probably encountered at least a hundred people heading up, most likely to Colchuck. There were times where we stepped off the trail to let 10 people go up before we could continue down the trail. Most people seemed prepared for the climb but there were several individuals with no pack, minimal water, and what seemed to be minimal conditioning for the arduous climb they had ahead of them. One person we encountered was already dragging her feet at 1.5 miles in while her friend encouraged her to keep going. For your safety, if you are in this situation, please just turn around. Knowing your limits is super important in the wilderness. No view is worth pushing yourself so hard that you get injured and stuck out there.

I had resolved to pick up trash on our way out. Fortunately, there wasn't much (I filled half a small zip lock baggie). But I'm guessing there's much more at Colchuck Lake, so if you're going there, please pack out what you can!

Cars were parked at least a half mile down the road when we left at about 10:30am on Saturday.

Specs roundtrip: 13.7mi, ~8hr moving time, 3000ft