GCGTX8 Ice Lake Basin cache
Type: Traditional | Size: Regular | Difficulty: | Terrain:
By: Jim, Vickie and Joey @ | Hide Date: 08/23/2003 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N37° 48.985 W107° 48.118 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 8
 

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North out of Silverton on Hwy 550 about 2 miles turn west and go 4 miles to South Mineral Creek Campground. There is parking for the trail to Ice Lake Basin just north of the campground. This will be about a 4 mile hike in and about 2500 feet elevation to the cache up a well mantianed trail.

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Ice Lake Basin has three lakes above 12,000 feet. Ice lake, Fuller lake, Island lake and several small unnamed lakes. Great views and good fishing in all the large lakes. This is above timberline so a summer only cache and dress accordinly. The cache is hidden on the trail to Island lake (the prettiest of the 3). The Island Lake trail starts about 200 yards downstream on the Ice lake outlet. The cache is in a plastic jug. It contains a fishing lure, fishing flies, water bubble and some other stuff. (I brought a fishing cache up here but not my pole, bummer) If you have been to Blue lakes cache, You will love this one.

03/24/2019 By emmipat
Found in 2014, transferring to this acct

09/10/2018 By mcbroom70
Spent the day hiking with family and found the cashe... the view from the top is worth it by itself! Picked Tb4xpqd/z94ywv and dropped off a bug out of NH. Log was soaking wet and we were unable to sign it.

09/08/2018 By BG2015
Amazing hike today, steep and brutal but worth it. Ice Lake's color was phenomenal, a welcome sight at the midway point of a long journey. Very popular trail. Made the loop past Island Lake and this cache now becomes my highest point. Waterfalls, old mines, everything about this place was just incredible. I would have made the hike even without the cache, but nice to combine two hobbies today. This is a must-do!

08/02/2017 By dasshatzi
Found on our way to island lake to stop for lunch. Cache is doing really well and the view from GZ is amazing. The hike up on a sunny day was excellent and we completed our round trip back to the bottom parking area in under four hours. SL TFTC!

09/02/2016 By Doane009
Four dudes out on a camping trip. First cache for one of them. Great hike, great views, sore legs. Thanks!

08/14/2016 By joshorin
Beautiful area but way too many people up here.

07/27/2016 By irisorio
Thanks for the hide. Team Irisorio.

07/05/2014 By Dr. Henry Jones Jr.
Really have no words to describe this one except "WOW". We're on vacation from Mississippi and had scouted the Ice Lakes trail as one THE to-do things in the Silverton area, so we decided to make it part of our trip. We drove up from Durango the morning of the hike and started our trek around 8:30. Finally made it to Ice Lake a few hours later. Having still not grabbed the cache, needless to say I was tad tired and signs of the July afternoon monsoons were starting stir. Really wanting to get the cache, I left my wife at Ice Lake and headed up for the final 0.3 mile (which was not an easy trek either). Found the cache easily, logged in, and headed back down, not wanting to tempt fate with the thunderstorms. Even though the sun was shining bright at GZ, the clouds were darkening in the distance and so I unfortunately did not make it to Island Lake. Without any question, this will be one of the caches I will never forget. Thanks for placing it! TNLNSL.

Ice Lake

Ice Lake from the Island Lake trail
Dr. Jones at GZ

06/29/2014 By SnailMan1
Today my sister and I head up to Ice Lake Basin cache. We arrived at the trailhead a 7:30 and it was registering a brisk 34 degrees. Unlike our hike yesterday with gale force winds, there wasn't even an hint of a breeze so we heated up pretty quickly. I have always loved the scenery in and around Silverton and this hike did not disappoint. There where many waterfalls on this hike and all of the streams were running high. As I made my way along the trail the song "Top of the World" by the Carpenters kept popping into my mind since there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The dark green trees against the deep blue sky was very beautiful today. Anyways, our hike ended up being a 10.1 mile hike (not sure where the other distance numbers come from for this hike) and we finally arrived back at the car at 2:00. First to.... sign the long in 2014 is about all I can claim. TFTC.

Bridge is out (GCGTX8)

First Waterfall (GCGTX8)
Below the waterfall (GCGTX8)
Finally the long meadow (GCGTX8)
Ice Lake Basin cache (GCGTX8)
Wading across the river (GCGTX8)
Rock Chuck (GCGTX8)
Island Lake (GCGTX8)
Top of the world (GCGTX8)
Ice Lake from above (GCGTX8)
Ice Lake Panorama (GCGTX8)
Waterfall (GCGTX8)
Another Waterfall (GCGTX8)
Trail Route (GCGTX8)

08/19/2013 By sepfind
I made a special trip for this cache after seeing the pictures, and it did not disappoint! Pretty difficult hike but incredible scenery. It seems the replacement cache is 30-35 feet off the original co-ords, but I spotted it right away. Found the spot that looks like where the original probably was. Thanks for introducing me to this trail and tftc!
Ice Lake

Island Lake

07/18/2013 By b2inaz
What a beautiful hike to Ice Lake. Took a short side trek to find the cache. Views from up here are so cool! SL T=geocoin L= Arrowhead found in Az. cache TFTC!
Ice Lake Basin

07/06/2013 By Wichita Bogey
Found with Fab2011. Camped overnight down in the trees and made the hike in the morning. Enjoyed the lake.

09/19/2012 By two much fun
replaced container, beautiful hike and cache, l-geocoin t-oregon pin