Phelps Lake

Distance: 4 miles round-trip to the lake
Duration: 2 hours
Elevation: 6,800 feet
Effort: moderate to strenuous
Trailhead: Death Canyon Trailhead (3 miles south of Moose off the Moose-Wilson Road)

This trailhead is a popular access point for backpackers heading into the wilderness, but shorter hikes are possible. It’s 1.8 miles round-trip to Phelps Lake Overlook, where you get a view across this beautiful mountain lake 600 feet below. From Phelps Lake Overlook you can hike steeply down for a lakeside picnic on the sandy beach, and then back the same way.

Death Canyon Patrol Cabin

Distance: 8 miles round-trip
Duration: 6 hours
Elevation: 6,800 feet
Effort: strenuous
Trailhead: Death Canyon Trailhead (3 miles south of Moose off the Moose-Wilson Road)

This challenging hike covers some of the same country as the Phelps Lake hike, but it continues beyond Phelps Lake Overlook to Death Canyon Patrol Cabin at the junction of Death Canyon Trail and Static Peak Trail. Getting to the cabin requires climbing 420 feet to the overlook, losing 400 feet in elevation, and then climbing 1,000 feet higher. And you’ve got to go back the same way. The small log cabin was built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s and is still used by trail maintenance crews. Continue 0.5 mile beyond the cabin up Death Canyon Trail for a dramatic vista into Death Canyon.