Hiking to the highest named lake in the United States, Pacific Tarn (13,420 ft). Located in the White River National Forest, Colorado, USA.

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This was a difficult day-hike that required class 3 climbing and route finding experience. The distance wasn't bad at 10 miles round-trip and 2,625 ft of elevation gain. There is however a steep gully with lots of loose rock that seemed easy enough going up, but coming down the gully full of loose rock was definitely the crux of the hike and extremely dicey.

This hike should only be attempted by experienced hikers. I would recommend wearing a helmet through the gully up to the ridge of Pacific Peak and Atlantic Peak.

We started our morning about an hour before sunrise at the Mccullough Gulch trailhead in Blue Lakes, Colorado. Located near the town of Breckenridge. The trailhead is just past the Quandary Peak parking lot and can be accessed with 2wd if the roads are free of ice and snow no problem.

McCullough Gulch trailhead is popular for nearby waterfalls, and two beautiful alpine lakes, with amazing views of the north face of Quandary Peak.

There is no official trail leading to Pacific Tarn as this ends at the second lake. Once we reached the second upper lake we began ascending a moderate boulder field. A GPS device is helpful here as cairns may be placed for other destinations such as Atlantic Peak or Fletcher Mountain, along with other climbing routes.

We stayed as close to solid rock as we could. At one point separating and taking our own route as the loose rock and steep grade could turn deadly if there are a group of hikers on the same stretch. Luckily we were the only ones in the area this day, both on the way up and on the way down.

Once through the steep gully you get on the flatter tundra for a little bit, before boulder hopping again to the shelf that sits below Pacific Peak and holds Pacific Tarn, the highest named lake in the United States.

This is not the only route to Pacific Tarn but it's the most accessible one that we could find information on. We saw a couple of people hiking up to Pacific Peak and they were on different routes then the one we took.

Once you are on the ridge of Pacific Peak and Pacific Tarn is in view you'll have to descend about 100 feet to reach the lake shore. Here we took some
video, lots of photographs, and thought it would be a good idea to throw the Gopro Hero 7 as far as I could into the lake.