CO Roadtrip - Lakes, Lakes, Lakes

The Four Pass Loop was the "big" thing we wanted to do on this roadtrip, so for the next few days we set our sights on hiking to alpine lakes and running on "easy" terrain. There are lots of 14ers in the area we were in, but I tagged all of them when I lived in Colorado - and honestly most of the 14,000' peaks are just piles of rocks. The 10,000 to 13,000 foot elevation range has much more beautiful landscapes: meadows, wildflowers, lakes, etc. I climbed up enough scree fields from 2008-2010.

After leaving Aspen we headed over Independence Pass (stopping a few times along the way) and camped that night at Twin Lakes. From there it was a little north to Leadville, where we camped at Turquoise Lake. Finally after 5 days we opted for a shower and spent the final night of the trip in a neat little town called Red Cliff, not far from where I used to live in Eagle-Vail. We stopped in Vail on July 4th for their America Days Parade before heading back to SLC (with a stop at Hanging Lake near Glenwood Springs).

Photos from July 1 to July 4...