Yes, I spelled that correctly and I am not talking about Maroon 5 - the band!
I am talking about Maroon Bells - the most photographed mountains of Colorado!
These Maroon Bells!
I seriously could not stop taking photos, and when I was sifting and sorting through photos (which I tend to do at this time of year), I came across these photos and realized I never shared them. These are from a weekend trip we took in October 2016 - yep, 2016 and yep, I am that far behind in my sorting and purging - which technically isn't too bad given I know many more people who are further behind than me, but October 2016 is definitely behind for me! But back to these Maroon Bells and our trip to Glenwood Springs.
Maroon Bells was actually Dennis' idea or Plan B! But to be fair I thought we were going to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. It wasn't until we arrived at Glenwood Springs that Dennis and I realized we were talking about 2 different places!
Then Dennis brought up the idea of driving to Aspen (not far from Glenwood Springs) but stopping before Aspen to hike the Maroon Bells. I had no idea what we were venturing to so I did some googling on the drive there. I discovered the Maroon Bells are the most photographed peaks in not only Colorado, but the entire United States! No way! I also discovered that it is such a popular destination that typically you are restricted from driving to the trailhead and during peak season, you ride a bus from Aspen Highlands. We were there in the off season so we were able to drive to the trailhead. That drive up was amazing despite the aspens were bare. Then, I was still amazed at how many cars and people were at the trailhead. I clearly had no idea about any of this which made this a true adventure!
The start of our adventure began here...
It was only 1.6 miles to Crater Lake but when you are hiking with a 10 year old who does not "hike", we tell her it's a stroll or an exploration and hope she doesn't notice how rugged the trail has become!
She would not turn around for this photo, but I took it anyway. I love this photo of her. I doubt she was admiring the beauty, more likely wondering how she was fooled to believe this was someone's idea of fun.
This next photo shows how rocky the trail became. But we ventured on and were reminded of the Boulder hike we did at Priest Lake.
This is my first view of Crater Lake, not nearly as impressive as some of the photos you might find on the web when googling Maroon Bells. I tried to capture a few with the mountains, however, in the end, it was too windy and no reflections were going to be seen. Alyssa is already sitting on a log enjoying some snack we brought along.
I tried a selfie to show how windy it was but it was so bright, I couldn't really see my phone's screen nor did I see Jaiden's hand behind my head!
Jaiden taking a break on the trail back. The mountains behind him are not the infamous Maroon Bells but they are part of the same amazing Elk Range.
Walking away from Crater Lake, opposite of the Maroon Bells were these also stunning views of red rock mountains. The contrast with the sky was too much and I had to take a photo. You can see all the barren Aspens so take a minute and imagine how magnificent this might look if those Aspens were at their peak yellow, with the red and blue... makes me want to actually come back and deal with the crowds to get that photo.
After the hike, we drove into Aspen for lunch. It's an interesting town and one I would probably love if it wasn't so pretentious but even just trying to find a casual restaurant is a feat in itself! We did enjoy a really good lunch but then strolled to a park where we took the kids almost 6 or 7 years ago. They still enjoyed climbing the rock structures!
On the way back to the car, we found this sculpture! I am sure some of you might recognize this from our 2017 calendar. I can't remember if I included both of these photos or not, but it doesn't matter. Their interactions with public art are the best.
And that wrapped up the most amazing, unexpected adventure for the day!
