Hunt Lake Trail Review

Pictured is a view of the trail going uphill. This is a section of the trail in-between Hunt and Boss lake. It is one of the more rocky sections on the trail.

Charlie Messa, Staff Reporter
November 4, 2020

Hunt Lake Trail was a moderate hiking and backpacking trail. I did the hike on October 7th with my mom. It took about two and a half hours.  It’s located on Monarch Pass. The turn-off for the trail is directly

Pictured is Hunt Lake. It is the bigger of the two lakes and the first one that you come too.

across from Monarch Lodge on Highway 50. To get to the trailhead you need a four-wheel-drive vehicle. If you don’t have that option there is a parking lot at the bottom of the road and then you hike up the road. The trail is all about 7 miles from start to finish. 

I really loved the trail. The views were an amazing 360 of all the surrounding mountains and woods. Hunt lake wasn’t too big but it was a really pretty blue with some island in the middle that made for a really cool sight to see. Boss Lake had really clear water and it had grass marches around it that were beautiful. The mountains that surrounded Boss Lake were amazing too. 

Pictured is the hiking going downhill. There are a lot of logs in the trail and rocks. The parking lot is maybe only a mile away. The trail was very steep in this section.

I thought that it was a great trail for people who want to try challenging themselves, even if they don’t have a lot of experience and aren’t ready for 14ers. The trail going up to the lakes had a steep incline and it was quite rocky. From what it looked like they’re working on making switchbacks so the trail isn’t as steep. Once you got up to the first lake it was flat for a little while.

The first lake was Hunt Lake. It was very scenic and had extraordinary views of the surrounding mountains. You can take the trail all the way around the lake and you can also camp around the lake if you backpacked in. We kept hiking up to the higher lake and had lunch up there. If you don’t want to walk all the way around the lake you can turn around or keep going to the second lake. 

Pictured is Lake Boss, the second lake. It is the smaller lake higher up in the mountains.

The second lake is Boss lake. This lake is smaller than Hunt lake but all the much prettier. It’s up higher in the mountains and has very pretty surrounding woods. You can also camp at this lake if you want. The trail that you take to get to the lake is also very steep with a lot of rocks but once you get closer to the lake the trail levels out.

It would be a great backpacking trail for people who are just starting out or getting ready for a bigger trip and need to do some smaller trips first. 

I would definitely recommend this trail. I loved the hike and all of the amazing views that came with it. The people that we saw were very friendly and there were a lot of people fishing at the first lake. If you want to go on a good hike this is a great trail.