Janice Poirot
4/5
Have done day and camping trips here for 10 years. Always catch rainbows from shore or a canoe. Currently (early September), the reservoir is really low (down 40-50 ft?) from June - not as pretty, but still catch our fish limit. A nice day trip is to hike from the reservoir to Sand and Crater Lakes on a <4 mile RT, shady trail, where there are brookies to catch in a very scenic setting. Sand Creek Trail continues into the Flattops so hike your heart out where you'll encounter almost no one after Sand Lake. Another option is Black Mountain Creek Trail to Pyramid Peak (6-7 miles RT) which also continues in the Flattops - beautiful scenery. A 3rd hike is Bunker Basin Trail (I recall it as the least impressive). All trail heads start from parking lot. This is not fourteener country but the Flattops have plenty of alpine charm and is lightly used. Nice 6-site campground, mostly for tents due to the rough terrain, in a spruce tree forest at $10/night: no water, pit toilet, most (but not all) have picnic tables, fire rings (currently open fires are banned), short walk to the reservoir. Families, kids and dogs have fun playing around the sandy-muddy shoreline that has now grown with the reservoir shrinkage. This is a heavily used area by hunters; hunters mostly stay at dispersed (free) campsites on the road to the reservoir. Over Labor Day weekend, two campsites remained empty, so this is a lightly used area with alot of locals. Usually there are lots of great dispersed campsites available along the road in, except during hunting season. At 9,700 feet, dress accordingly.
