One approach to the Tonahutu Creek Trail is the same as the approach to the North Inlet Trail. Many folks park their cars beside CO 278 at 0.8 mile from the Grand Lake fork and walk along the unpaved road to the trailhead. But there is a parking lot at the trailhead, on the left of the road. From the parking lot the Tonahutu Creek Trail follows moderate grades to the north through lodgepole pines. After 0.9 mile it reaches a junction with a 0.5-mile spur that originates at the Kawuneeche Visitor Center. (Parking at the visitor center eliminates 0.4 mile of hiking through lodgepole pine.) The path steepens somewhat past the junction but remains moderate as it parallels Tonahutu Creek uphill to the beginning of Big Meadows, more than 2.0 miles from the trailhead. The trail skirts the edge of Big Meadows, keeping in the shade and out of marshy grassland, which is more easily trampled than is the forest. The shade is welcome, for the 4.4 miles of trail between the trailhead and a junction with the Green Mountain Trail are often hot. I recommend skipping the first part of the Tonahutu Creek Trail and hiking to the junction via the more interesting, more comfortable, and 2.6 miles shorter Green Mountain Trail (see Onahu Creek–Green Mountain Circuit in the Trail Ridge Road chapter).
Big Meadows seem to go on and on, even if you reach them at the midpoint, at the Green Mountain–Tonahutu Creek junction. From the junction hike north on an excellent trail and past log cabin ruins. More than 0.5 mile north of the junction, the trail divides. The left-hand fork continues north to Onahu Creek. The right-hand fork, the Tonahutu Creek Trail, bends to the east around the upper end of Big Meadows. Cutting between a forested hill and the northern bank of Tonahutu Creek, the trail follows an easy grade upstream most of the way to Granite Falls, 7.8 miles from the Tonahutu Creek Trailhead and 5.2 miles from the Green Mountain Trailhead.
More than 1.5 miles past Granite Falls, the trail crosses a stream flowing south from Haynach Lakes just below a pretty cascade. A little farther a trail branches left up a drainage to the beautiful lakes, as well as numerous marshy ponds and one large tarn at the base of Nakai Peak (see Flattop Mountain Trail System in the Bear Lake Trailhead chapter for more about Haynach Lakes). The lakes are an excellent 7.5-mile hike from the Green Mountain Trailhead.
Nakai Peak can be reached in an uncomplicated ascent from Haynach Lakes. Walk uphill along the drainage flowing into the largest lake to a saddle on the ridge between Nakai and the Continental Divide. Turn left at the saddle and, skirting right (west) around a bump on the ridge, follow the ridgeline to Nakai’s summit. The summit is about 9.0 miles from the Green Mountain Trailhead.