Tanglewood Trail, 13er Rosalie Peak, Beartrack Lakes, Roosevelt Lakes (Bailey, CO).

Date hiked: 7-12-23

Mileage: 13.7 miles roundtrip

Usage: Low

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To start, head out on the Rosalie Trail from the parking area for 1 mile, until it takes a sharp left turn at the beginning of the Tanglewood Trail. Continue straight, and fill out a free use permit as you enter the Mount Evans Wilderness. 

Staying close to the creek, the Tanglewood Trail is rockier than the Rosalie Trail. You’re mostly in the trees, except for a small meadow at 2 miles. 

At about 2.5 miles, the trail gets a little braided before crossing Tanglewood Creek. There is no bridge, but at the tail end of snowmelt, I had no trouble. 

Across the next .3 miles, the incline gradually grows until the foot of the switchbacks that bring the trail up to a nearly 12,000 foot saddle below Rosalie Peak’s easy east ridge. There were a lot of fallen trees starting into the switchbacks, but nothing across the trail. 

At a wide avalanche chute, the trail breaks out of the trees, into wildflowers in the open tundra. Elk or moose left tracks across the trail. Above treeline, you’ll reach a post marking the pass at 4 miles. 

For Rosalie Peak, turn left, and start up the broad ridge without a trail. It’s  1.5 miles from here to the 13,575 foot summit, along an easy class-2 ridge. From this vantage, you can only see the false summit. Try to keep to the rocks and bare dirt where you can to leave less of an impact. 

It was a bluebird morning, and the chance of a storm was 0% until noon, but it felt like the birds that kept flying over the ridge at my back knew something that I didn’t. Halfway up, I found them congregating on a melting snowfield still left in the tundra. 

Crowning the false summit, the ridge keeps going, but the true summit remains out of view until the grade eases in a talus field a quarter mile below it. After 5.25 miles, Mounts Evans and Bierstadt slid into view, and I came up on the cairn marking the summit. There was no register that I could find. 

With the weather holding, I decided to drop down the north face of Rosalie Peak to Beartrack Lakes. There wasn’t a trail, and it’s too broad to see any of the lakes from the summit, so I followed my compass and GPS to try and find a decent line down. I knew from Google Earth there were some cliffs I needed to avoid around the upper lakes, so I aimed for the lowest and largest of the 4 lakes. 

Reaching treeline, I found some game trails to help me through a tangled forest to the shoreline, where I also found a very old rusted pan. I was hoping for a good trail around the lake, and found a faint one that did the job.

The Beartrack Lakes Trail leaves along the north side of Beartrack Creek. It’s faint at the start, then gains strength. I had some trouble keeping track of it through a web of campsites.

An old fire and fallen trees carried me through a quarter mile to where it crosses the creek just before the turn for the Roosevelt Lakes Trail. Watch closely for a sharp right. The sign is there, but laying in the grass. This is about 7.5 miles overall.

The start of the Roosevelt Lakes Trail is pretty overgrown, and threaded with game trails in the undergrowth. Pulling higher on dryer slopes, the trail became more evident. There were a few cairns along the way where it wasn’t. The grade is steep and unforgiving until treeline.

At treeline, the trail all but disappears, but an obvious cairn dictates a sharp left turn. 1.4 miles after leaving Beartrack Creek, the trail levels. There’s more elevation to be gained, but you’ve put the hardest behind you. It’s rocky above treeline. More cairns mark the route where there isn’t a trail. 1/3 of the way back to the pass, the trail drops down into the shallow Roosevelt Lakes basin. 

Skirting the lower lake, a better trail leads back to the pass without much more gain.

Looking up at the pass.

From the pass retrace your steps down the Tanglewood and Rosalie Trails. 

Map