Horseshoe Lake & Lost Lake (Wheeler Peak Wilderness, Carson National Forest)

Latitude/Longitude: 36.6061667, -105.3841333 Elevation: 9600 ft (at Trailhead 58A).
Weather Forecast (at Horseshoe Lake):  http://tinyurl.com/HorseshoeLakeWeather
Fire Restrictions: http://firerestrictions.us/nm/nm-usfs/carson-nf--questa-district/

While looking for a place to take a medium-range multi-day backpacking trip this summer when both the Pecos and San Pedro Parks Wilderness areas were closed (the entire Santa Fe National Forest was closed at the time), we decided to venture a bit further afield.  We found links to multiple hiking trails on the Carson National Forest website, and decided the trek starting at the 58A trailhead going to Horseshoe Lake looked like a good fit.  It was a great trip!  The scenery is rugged and beautiful, and there is a fair amount of water at various points along the trail.  Trail 58 is actually following the East Fork River most of the way down, but the river is usually 50-100 ft below you down a steep slope.  But, you do come close to it a few times, so bring a water filter.

Although Carson NF said it was a 5-mile trip, our map measurements and GPS put it around 7 miles (6.8).  Who knows, maybe we took a wrong turn, but we were definitely following an established trail, and we ended up where we should have.   You cover about 2,300 ft in elevation gain from the trailhead to Horseshoe Lake.  It was moderate difficulty, although the near 7-mile length perhaps makes it into a low-difficult range. The only really steep parts are at the last mile or 1.5 miles, and by then I was already decently tired after backpacking 40lb in that far.

Horseshoe Lake sits at 12,000 ft elevation, and is a pristine example of an alpine lake.  Crystal clear water, beautiful surroundings, and lots of wildlife.  We literally had bighorn sheep just walk through our campsite throughout the time we were there.  They weren't bothered by us at all.  We also saw quite a few rabbits and what we later found out were marmots.  It was great!  When you go, make sure you camp at least 300 ft from the lake, per NF guidelines, to leave the lake beautiful for others.

Note that Horseshoe Lake sits right at the base of Wheeler Peak, the highest point in New Mexico.  Another great attraction could be bagging the peak while you were there.  Looking at the trail map, and talking to a ranger, we thought it would be a 2-3 mile hike (one way) to get to the peak, and we just didn't have time for an extra 4-6 mile roundtrip journey on our overnighter trip.  However, I think it wouldn't have been that far - I think it wouldn't have taken long at all.  We'll have to do it next time.

Hiking out, at the junction between trail 91 and trail 58, we met a Carson NF trail cleaning crew.  We asked them about the trail to the nearby Lost Lake.  We had thought about simply taking a short-ish detour to hit that lake, and then hike back out the way we came.  However, they explained the views on the way out through Lost Lake along 91, and then out through the Middle Fork Trail were much more open and scenic.  We had a great hike in, but thought it would be awesome to see new scenery on the way out, so we sent two leaders out the original way to get the cars and meet us at the trailhead we would come out (3-4 miles away from the parking lot we left the cars at).  It was a great recommendation and a wonderful hike.  It worked out to be exactly the same distance out through 91/Middle Fork as it had been coming in through 58/East Fork.


Elevation Profiles Shown Below:

Elevation Profile for Entrance Route, From Trail 58-A to Horeshoe Lake

Elevation Profile for Exit Route, from Horseshoe Lake through Lost Lake, and out Trail 91

Carson National Forest Page for the Horseshoe Lake Hike
Trail Map from Carson NF (accurate, except for the mileage)

Horseshoe Lake

Lots of animals wandering right through our camp

Valley just south of Horseshoe Lake

Trail on the way in

Lost Lake (about 2 miles from Horseshoe Lake)

One of many beautiful vistas on hike out on Trail 91

View Larger Map (Trailhead)


View Larger Map (Horseshoe Lake)