South San Juan Video, 2011.

This is a 44 mile loop in the South San Juan Wilderness of southern Colorado. It begins at the South Fork Trailhead on Forest Road 250. FR 250 can be reached from Highway 17 west of Antonito.

We followed the South Fork Trail up the South Fork of the Conejos River to the Canon Verde Trail. We made our first camp near the junction. On day 2 we hiked up the Canon to Green Lake. It was a pretty lake with some good campsites but since it was early, we kept going. It is a 300 climb to the Continental Divide Trail and then a little over 4 miles to Blue Lake. We spent the night there.

On day 3 we hiked the CDT for about a mile to the Fish Lake Trail and then hiked the 4 miles to Fish Lake. The areas around Fish Lake is rocky and barren of trees. Since we had been getting a lot of hail and rain, we decided to back track a couple miles to an unnamed lake that had some trees so we could set up the tarp. Good thing, too, because the rain came again.

On day 4 we hiked back to Blue Lake then picked up the South Fork Trail for a half mile until the junction of the Glacier Lake Trail. Another hike through the alpine. Glacier Lake is another beauty but also lacked trees. We dropped down the bluff, picked up the Rincon Trail and camped at Twin Lakes.

Day 5 was a day hike up to Conejos Peak. We scrambled up one of the chutes and enjoyed a good part of the day above 12,000 feet. Then we came back down to Twin Lakes and set out to explore the shelf above Hansen Creek.

On Day 6 we hiked to Bear Lake. We stayed on the Rincon Trail for almost 3 miles looking for a trail marked as the Conejos Trail on the old topos. With some difficulty we found some intermittent treads but mostly went cross country until we were able to find the Bear Lake Cut-off. The east side of the lake was in the wood and had a good campsite. The other sides were rocky and steep and not suitable for camping.

The following day we headed back to the South Fork Trailhead. We took the Bear Lake Cut-off to the Roaring Gulch Trail, about 2.3 miles. We turned southeast for about 3 miles to the junction of the South Fork Trail and then an easy mile back to the parking lot.