Bakers Tank Trail Breckenridge Boreas Pass

The day before our hike, Breckenridge had gotten 12 inches of snow as seen in this photo of the trailhead. We started at the Boreas Pass TH. No bathrooms here but a decent size parking lot. The turn is tricky. Look for the ice rink to make your left south of Breck at the last traffic light.

We had to break our trail as it started through a pine forest.

Views of Breckenridge and the Lake were to the right.

Here you can see Breckenridge Trails on the Mountain.

This would also be a great trail for XC skiing.

You will pass through a grove of Aspens.

A faraway view of Quandary Peak.

Toward the end the Ten Mile mountain range comes into view. This is named for the ten numbered peaks of the range, which measure approximately ten miles. The lower slopes of Peaks 7-10 comprise the Breckenridge ski resort.

At this point we think we are almost there....

The destination is the Bakers Tank. This tank originally fueled the giant engines going through the west portal of the Alpine Tunnel.Ore from the nearby Mountain Pride Mine was loaded here in addition to the water.

The engines drank huge amounts of water, which was replenished at the tanks. Tanks were placed below natural streams and fed by gravity. The spout hinged upright in its resting position was lowered into the open hatch on top of the tender.  The entire operation took no more than a few minutes.

Heading back the way we came.

We ran into a snow bike. Looks like a lot of work in the deep snow. The trail was about 3 miles to the tank for a total of 6 miles.
Elevation at 10,300 to 11,000 ft.

Bergen Peak Trail Elk Meadow Evergreen

This is a great hike close to home. We weren't sure how much snow we would run into or if there was. We were glad to have our microspikes as  mostly the whole trail was ice.

We started at the Stagecoach trailhead at Elk Meadow park. There are bathrooms and plenty of parking.

The Meadow View Trail is the first trail we took. This was really off season and didn't see too many people. I hear it is quite crowded in the summer.

At .3 miles the Sleepy S Trail branches off to the right. Stay on the Meadow View trail until the Bergen Peak turnoff.  There were some nice benches we could sit down and put on our microspikes. I would recommend bringing poles as well. The altitude gain is about 1,500 ft or more if you go to the top.

You will start to see some views of the valley below. I loved some of these twisty trees.

Here is a great place to see Mt evans to the right. It was covered in snow- pure white.  There are a lot of switchbacks as you climb the next 2.7 miles.

There are many pine trees along the ridge here.

Here is the view of Mt Evans in white.

This gives you an idea of the trail. Trees and some rocks to climb over. It was a nice varied hike.

This is how deep the snow got in spots.

If you go all the way to the top it is 9.4 miles. We stopped at  almost 4 miles since it was getting very windy and snow was forecasted for noon. Our total was 7.37 miles - took us  4 hours to hike.