Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest · Colorado, Wyoming

Baby Lake

5.0 mi of trail, end to end · native material surface · trail No. 859 · trail class 2 · typical grade 12-20% · tread 18-24 inches wide · hiking, horse, bike

Trailhead Baby Lake Trailhead Drive there

Baby Lake Trailhead the Forest Service's write-up

season July to September

Baby Lake is located in the Sierra Madre Range and is managed by the Brush Creek/Hayden Ranger District. Trailhead provides non-motorized access to the Baby Lakes Trail and Huston Park Wilderness Area. The trail winds through mixed conifer and aspen forests, meadows, through stands of dead trees and across streams in the Huston Park Wilderness Area. The trail does not go to Baby Lake but follows Baby Lake Creek through deep grass and marshes. Areas can be very wet throughout summer. The trail is a steep climb uphill from the Baby Lake Trailhead until you reach the Continental Divide. The trail is marked with rock cairns and tree blazes. These are sometimes difficult to see; always carry a topographic map and be prepared for the wilderness area challenge. For fewer hills to climb, you may want to access the Baby Lake Trail from the Red Mountain Trailhead. This way there is only one steep hill to climb at the end near the Baby Lake Trailhead.

This trailhead on fs.usda.gov

All 375 trails in Medicine Bow-Routt National ForestFind a trailForest on fs.usda.gov

About this trail's facts

The lines are the US Forest Service's National Forest System trails layer (public domain), read 2026-10-16 and simplified for the map; the length is the line's, end to end, and the class, surface, grade and tread width are the forest's own entries where it publishes them - a forest that publishes the centreline alone has none. The trailheads and the points along the way are the Service's recreation points, and the write-ups its own recarea text, unedited. Heights come from USGS 3DEP through Terrain Tiles on AWS (Mapzen/Tilezen), read along each line and rounded; a short trail on steep ground can be off by a few tens of feet. Closures change: check the forest's own site before you go.