CO Roadtrip - Four Pass Loop

Around the turn of the year I booked a campsite for a couple nights at Silver Bar Campground (on the Maroon Bells road), thinking maybe we could go do the Four Pass Loop... but in the back of my mind thinking the chances are LOW that the trails will be clear and the weather will be good.

Well, Colorado had a low snow year and lately its been warm and dry. Great for hiking and trail running, bad for fire danger. A big wildfire broke out near Aspen a day or two after we were there. We got to Silver Bar on Friday afternoon, setup camp, and then started around 7am on Saturday morning.

The loop is around 27 miles and climbs ~8,000 feet. TrailRunProject says its 74% runnable, but I'm really bad at any type of technical/rocky terrain, so maybe it was 50% runnable for me. That being said, Four Pass is one of the most stunningly beautiful trail linkups I've ever done (maybe the best... its definitely a 1A/1B type of ranking), so fast hiking allows you to take in a lot more of the scenery. Andrea and I decided early on that since the weather was so good and there was zero chance of thunderstorms, we were in no rush and opted for "take our time and enjoy the day" over "push hard and sufferfest."

The whole day was just perfect. Sunny, warm, hardly any clouds. No chance of rain. Dry trails, and wildflowers EVERYWHERE. I don't think we could have gotten this in better conditions. We were just 100% stoked all day!