Colorado trails · Cotton Trail
Cotton Trail
A 12.5-mile out-and-back in Colorado, with 3,911 ft of climbing, topping out at 12,516 ft. Reaches Cotton Lake. Managed by USFS Saguache Ranger District.
Elevation profile
The climbing is spread fairly evenly along the route. It gives back about 1,537 ft along the way, so it rolls rather than climbing steadily.
3-D terrain
USGS 3DEP ELEVATION × ESRI WORLD IMAGERY · VERTICAL ×1.5
Reaches
- Cotton Lake (lake)
Heads up
Getting there
Cotton Creek Trailhead — parking nearby. About 1 h 22 min drive (42 mi, 9 of them unpaved) from Salida. 38.13154, -105.78863 · directions
Daylight at the trailhead
On October 14, 2026 — the day this page was generated — first light reaches this trailhead at 6:44 a.m., the sun rises at 7:10 a.m. and sets at 6:27 p.m., and the last usable light fades about 6:53 p.m. (MDT) — 11 h 16 min of daylight. At about 2.7 mph plus 30 minutes per 1,000 feet of climbing, the 25.1-mile round trip works out to roughly 13 h 12 min of walking — more than a single day of daylight here, so plan it as an overnight or hike it in sections.