A few years ago I was driving on Colorado State Highway 82, heading to Aspen to see the Maroon Bells when the scenery I was passing through compelled me to stop and explore. I'd made sure to include some leeway in my itinerary so I stopped at the next campground I passed and set up my tent. Much of the area (if not all) is a national forest and there are numerous forest service campgrounds along the road.
Twin Lakes gets its name from the two glacial lakes next to the community. Located at the foot of Colorado's tallest mountain, Mount Elbert, the whole area is high country, ranging from 9,300-9,800 feet above sea level. Leadville, its much more famous neighbor is nearby (I drove through Leadville to get there) and the ultramarathon that starts near Leadville (Leadville Traill 100) passes through Twin Lakes. It's also pretty much the last stop before going over Independence Pass, which is midway between Twin Lakes and Aspen.
My grandfather ran an old country general store until he fell out of a tobacco barn in the late 70s, the Twin Lakes General Store pictured above just reminded me of that and was part of what convinced me to stop. The area is part of the Twin Lakes Historic District, located across the road from the general store are several well maintained buildings from the 1800s although they were already closed during my time there. Just past the buildings are the lakes from which it gets its name. In the photo below you can see one of the old buildings, if I recall correctly it dates to the early days of the community, sometime in the 1880s.
I was dodging thunderstorms and raindrops much of the afternoon I spent there, you can see the clouds from those in many of these photos. Calling Twin Lakes a town is something of a stretch, according to the 2010 census there were a total of 171 people there, the general store and the restaurant near it were the only establishments I saw in the whole place. If you blinked a time or two while driving you'd be liable to miss it, by the time I decided to stop I'd already passed through and ended up staying in a campground just up the road a bit.
The photo above is one of the lakes, to the left is where the old building and the general store are located. If you are thinking of visiting I'd recommend going in the summer, come wintertime it's a gamble as to whether the roads to get there are open. The general store was a bit pricey, bringing your own supplies isn't a bad idea although it's nice to have a place to grab anything you might have forgotten (it's also a fun experience to just go browse and visit at the general store). Another thing to be mindful of is bears, shortly after setting up my tent the campground host came by and warned me that one had been hanging out at the entrance to camp recently but I never saw him. While I was there the water at the camp wasn't working but you could hear the nearby river from camp, I had a water filtration system so this was no issue but if you're not prepare for it that and the vault toilets (glorified outhouses) can be a bit of a surprise.
The above two photos are of some of the scenery surrounding my campsite just outside Twin Lakes, the photo below is one last one of part of the lake and the mountains beyond.
I can't hardly mention Twin Lakes without at least teasing you a bit with some photos of Independence Pass. It's pretty well the next stop for you after Twin Lakes and there is lots of amazing scenery there. In some of the next photos you can see Highway 82 that you take to get to Twin Lakes and the pass (and Aspen). If you're ever looking for a place to go to get away from the tourist crowds and still see some amazing scenery, look no further than Twin Lakes and its environs.
Hope y'all enjoy, drop me a comment if you have a particular place that's something of a hidden gem that you love to visit.