The Silver Lake Cabin

THE SILVER LAKE CABIN

It don't look like much, but what a nice place to stay when we staff the Information Station at Carson Pass. Located just east of the Kit Carson Lodge complex, across the road from the Silver Lake Campground, and just up from Silver Lake, the cabin has a perfect location. One could not ask for more, especially since it does not cost anything to stay there when one staffs the Carson Pass Information Station. Take a good look for you might also get to use it.

The Cabin At Silver Lake was built sometime during the 1930's and used for a number of years as the Silver Lake Ranger Station. When built, the cabin had just two rooms. One was the combination kitchen and dinning/living room; the other was the bedroom. An outhouse was located some distance away from the building (it is still there and is still usable). As some point, a two room addition was added to the front of the building (the side with the yellow sign on ir and concrete slab in front of it). This addition included a closet for a flush toilet and a closet where a shower is located. So today, we have a place to sleep, store and cook our food, shower, relax, take care of nature's demands, and go fish or just play in the lake. It now has a bunk bed, a regular twin-size bed and a full-size futon. It might not be home, but it is sure a nice place to stay and relax. A person can even go "next door" and buy an ice cream bar at the Kit Carson Resort store.

To get to stay at the cabin one has to be staffing the Carson Pass Information Station or otherwise have permission to use it. The people on duty at Carson Pass have first call on use of the cabin.

The cabin is still Forest Service property but ENFIA volunteers do most of the maintenance on it. For example we put a new roof on the cabin and painted it using Forest Service-provided materials. We recently cleaned and painted the interior using ENFIA-supplied materials. We also close the building at the end of the season by turning off the water supply, draining all of the pipes, and putting shutters over the windows (there can be as much as 10 feet of snow around the building during the winter). In late spring, volunteers reverse the process to open the building for use again.

Interested in staying at the Silver Lake Cabin? If so, check out the staffing opportunities at Carson Pass.