Camping near South Colony Lakes

[Benito_Esposti]

Hi all,

Some buddies and I (five people total) are looking to do a backpacking trip into the South Colony Lakes area to hit Humboldt, Crestones, and maybe Kit Carson and Challenger for a five day, four night trip later this summer. I was up there last year and did Humboldt and the Needle as two separate day trips and remember passing camping spots near the lower lake before the ascent of broken hand pass, but I didn't take a long look at the spots and memory of them is fuzzy. Was wondering if anyone had camped at these spots in past years or this year and knew the rough size? With five people we're a bit of a big group and are trying to minimize our impact/space taken up by tents. If the camping spaces are large, we might do a couple one man and two man tents, but if space is limited we're gonna look at doing a three man and two man. Additionally, I remember the spot being somewhere around the red circle below, can anyone confirm that is the rough location?

Crestone Camping Spot.JPG

Thank you in advance!

[mtree]

There's quite a bit of dispersed camping in the area, but depends on the day you arrive. If you get there during the week you should be able to locate a suitable area. Weekends? Hard to say. You might have to camp lower. I once hiked further into the woods at the highest camping area and found plenty of open spots.

One piece of advice: If you search beyond the "established" camping spots beware of poo piles. Some folks don't know how to properly bury or pack out their baggage let alone drop FAR away from campsites. A buddy of mine setup his tent next to one and tracked it into his tent. Disgusting. What a mess to clean up! He ended up sleeping under the stars.

[LURE]

you might not particularly enjoy the necessary trek for water from camp if you choose a spot in that circle.

[Jim Davies]

I preferred camping further down in the trees, maybe about where my lower circle is. Higher up, there's less shelter and scantier opportunities for privacy and bear-bagging, and you aren't much closer to the peaks, really. There's a big campsite on the north side of the creek somewhere in that area, but south of the creek there are some smaller spots that work, at least when I was last up there in the early 2010's. I suspect the spot you've circled is a boulder field with a few krummholzy trees.

Crestone Camping Spot.JPG

[mtree]

I think I've camped between those 2 circles. Jim is right. Shortly after passing the sign to Broken Hand Pass the terrain becomes very rocky. I was never camped past the sign, but very close to the lake.

[PaulVee]

This spot was great for us last year... sort of hidden behind a giant boulder. We had 2 tents but you could easily have more.

[Benito_Esposti]

Thank you all so much for the replies and information! Will plan on searching that lower vicinity first, looking forward to the trip