Colorado Flat Tops

Colorado offers many remote areas with scenery that rivals the best of the best. The Colorado Flat Tops are one of these area. In the summer of 2008 we had a chance to traverse part of the flat tops via county and 4 wheel drive roads. We took fours days with 2 camps to complete this trip. We entered the area from Rifle, Colorado via State Highway 325. After passing Rifle Gap Reservoir be sure to stop at Rifle Falls State Park to view the water falls and play in the small caves. At the upper end of the canyon we took a right on Little Box Canyon Road which took up to the top of the Plateau.

The Flat Tops offer wide expanses of rolling high altitude meadows and forests. The plateau is intersected by a number of canyons which off fantastic vistas.

We spent our first night camping at Cliff Lakes and tried our hand at fishing with no luck. The Flat Tops are known for having lots of mosquitoes  and we were not disappointed at Cliff Lakes.

After leaving Cliff lakes we headed east on a combination of graded and 4 wheel drive roads enjoying the many lakes and fields of flowers. Once we topped out on Blair Mountain the wild flowers were some of the best that I have ever seen in Colorado. To the east we enjoyed the view of the Flat Tops Wilderness area.

The decent from Blair Mountain into the valley bellow was a rocky twisty decent with out much technical difficulty.

Once in the valley there are a number of lakes that can be enjoyed as well as some more spectacular views.

We climbed west to Adams Lake for our next camp site, The trail to Adams starts with a steep climb and has some difficult sections. We spent two rainy nights at Adams lake. We again tried fishing with only a few bites. The next day we spent time between rain storms exploring the area on foot.

We finished our trip on the flat tops exiting on the Transfer Trail in Glenwood Springs.

Flat Tops Trip Google KML File