Lost Wonder Hut

Lost Wonder Hut

A beautiful backcountry lodge in the Sawatch mountains of Colorado. Hike, bike, ski, or four-wheel into your next adventure.

Location & Amenities

Location and Access The trailhead is on the north side of Highway 50 in the small town of Garfield, which is about twelve miles west of the intersection of highways 285 and 50 in Poncha...

Maps

Maps Hut coordinates WGS 84 UTM: 13S 384196E 4270113N Crowd-sourced Gaia GPS routes. This link includes GPX tracks from the TH to the hut The alternate route around Mt. Aetna Skin track from LWH to St....

FAQs

What do I do if the trailhead parking is full when I arrive? You can choose to park in the Monarch Lodge parking lot, just across the street from the trailhead. Please check in with...

Home

Welcome to the Lost Wonder Hut

The hut is a historic cabin with modern amenities and offers a comfortable, cozy home base from which to hike, bike, ski, snowshoe, or just relax in the beautiful Middle Fork Valley of the South Arkansas River in Colorado’s southern Sawatch Range. Your next backcountry adventure begins here. We offer incredible multi-season opportunities to explore some of Colorado’s most breathtaking scenery from the comfort and safety of a rustic mountain lodge.

Female Owned Business

Lost Wonder Hut has been a family-owned business for over a decade, starting with a husband-and-wife team, Bobby and Natalie Lewis, and is now a mom-and-daughter operation.  When the Lewis family first became the owners of the hut, Bobby ran operations at the hut while Natalie ran the office side of things. Jess was just in high school when they first bought it and participated

Bobby and Natalie, hand in hand on the Continental Divide.

in running the hut with occasional winter cleaning and wood chopping in the summer. In the last few years, Bobby has passed his side of the business to Jess, but you’re likely to still see him up the valley where the hut sits, out skiing with his dog Rio, or scrambling up the peaks. Bobby put a lot of love and hard work into making the hut what it is today and Jess can only aspire to treat it with the same level of love and dedication. It is a legacy she feels honored to be a part of. 

Natalie & Jess Lewis

These days, you’re likely to catch Jess on the trail and on the other end of the business line but both Jess and Natalie both live to be outside. Some of their collective adventures include: walking the CDT in 2006 when Jess was just a teenager, paddling the inside passage, traversing Antarctica, walking the PNT, climbing and guiding in all 7 continents, thousands of miles of whitewater navigated, and much much more. Owning the hut together has been an incredible journey to undertake and they are both grateful to have such a fantastic business partner. 

 

 

 

 

 

Trip Insurance

We strongly recommend that people buy their own trip insurance before going to the hut. Our cancellation policy only allows for a refund within the first 15 days after making the reservation. Please see our cancellation...

Info Videos

Merchandise

We now have Lost Wonder Hut t-shirts and mugs available for sale! Each reservation is eligible for one free item. See the details on our Availability page.  If you would like to purchase one of...

Safety Resources

Weather

Windy – Most accurate weather we have found for anywhere in the world

National Weather Service forecast for Garfield, CO

Monarch Mountain Ski Area Webcam

Monarch Pass Highway Conditions

Avalanche Safety & Info

We highly recommend that backcountry users have a working knowledge of how to move in and evaluate avalanche terrain. There are a plethora of good resources out there to study, train, and revamp knowledge.  If you haven’t done so already taking an Avalanche Course through an accredited provider is invaluable. You can check out the AIARE  website to learn more. 

The hut is located in the south-central mountains of Colorado and reviewing both the CAIC Sawatch Range forecast and the Crested Butte Avalanche Center forecast can give you a more detailed understanding of snow and weather conditions at the hut. 


Avalanche Alternate Route

 If the snow conditions up in the Aetna slide chute look concerning to you, an alternate route can be taken to the south, around the bottom of the chute in the trees.  Please check the avalanche report before you go to help with your decision-making.  The report can be found by clicking here.  The slide zone is on a south/southwest aspect.  The location of the Hut is in the Swatch Range and has a south/southwest aspect.  Upcoming weather can be found by clicking here.  Snow conditions are best found by checking the Monarch snow report – only a few miles away from the hut as the crow flies – by clicking here.

The map below is from hillmap.com.  It shows the slope angles of the peaks surrounding the Hut.  A copy of this map can be obtained by clicking below the map.

Download file

To download a copy of the map above, click below.

– Download file

 

Fire

Chaffee County Fire Restrictions 

Please know the fire restrictions before you go up to the hut. Wildfires are increasingly a threat in our mountains and we want to be sure that we are following best fire practices at all times. We provide firewood to be burned inside the woodstove at the hut, please do not use our wood for outdoor fires. If you do have a campfire we ask that it is small and manageable and that you burn all the logs down to ash. You can deposit any ash into the cans provided. These cans should not be near or touching the hut as embers can stay alive for a long time and we do not want to burn the hut down. 

If you need to evacuate from a fire, head down the valley and back to the trailhead as quickly as possible. If the fire is closer and you cannot escape down the valley, exit the hut, and go straight up the slope of Mt. Aetna behind the hut. You can gain treeline quickly from there. If you see a wildfire please call 911 immediately and alert them. Once you are safe if you can also alert us we would appreciate that. 

Phone Numbers

Chaffee County Fire – (719) 395-6545

Chaffee County Police – (719) 395-6545

Chaffee County EMS – (719) 539-1914

Chaffee County Search and Rescue – (719) 581-9271