Maroon Bells

On the Fourth of July my fiancé, one of our friends, and I went on a backpacking trip to the Maroon Bells in Aspen, Colorado. The whole trip was beautiful, and I would recommend it to everyone. It was about a 28 mile loop and you go over four passes, all of which are above 12,400 feet. I think this hike was much easier than Paria Canyon, maybe because you have such a variance in views, whereas in Paria you can only see a few hundred feet ahead of you at a time.

We started out with a little rain and on day two we had to pitch our tent quickly to wait out a thunder storm (we were right below one of the passes, but didn't want to go up obviously with the lighting and thunder). One of the storms was actually a hail storm right over the other side of the mountain but we totally missed it since we were on the other side!

All in all the hike was beautiful and a great way to spend celebrating the Fourth of July!

Crater Lake, day one...it was rainy that day.

Onward to west maroon trail

It started to clear up a little after we started on our hike

Behind Crater Lake...day two.

Even though it was July as you can see there was still a lot of snow we had to deal with.

The view from the first pass--West Maroon Pass.

On the other side of the pass, between West Maroon Pass and Frigid Air Pass, I think you can also get here through Crested Butte.

"Skiing" down the other side of Frigid Air Pass after we had waited out a thunder and lighting storm.

Day three at Fravert Basin. There are a lot of bears here and when we were playing cards we were making a bunch of noise and people ran down the trail with a first aid kit because they thought we were being attacked by bears. At least we knew they cared!

Fravert Basin...beautiful

Going up Trail Rider Pass. This one was tough because there were a lot of false summits. We even celebrated and ate our lunch at a lake thinking we were at the top when we realized we weren't even close.

Down the other side of Trail Rider. I had a little freak out trying not to slip down the mountainside on the ice and it took me WAY too long to get across the snow!

Snowmass Lake, beautiful isn't it?

The view between Trail Rider Pass and Buckskin Pass.

Log bridge we crossed. We had already crossed about three or four rivers by just wading through the icy water. The bridge was a welcome sight.

The Maroon Bells and a beaver made lake.

Day four on our way up to Buckskin Pass, just enjoying the view.

The view from Buckskin Pass.

On the other side of Buckskin

And we're done! I literally ran the last couple of miles with my huge pack on so I could get this shot of the Maroon Bells without clouds covering them. It was worth it.

{All photos by me}