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...

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!

CO Roadtrip - Colorado National Monument

Andrea and I decided to head out of town for a few days (6, so more like a week) as our respective jobs have been crazy lately. Plan A was central Colorado if the weather looked good. The forecast was high and dry, so we took off last Thursday afternoon. We made good time to Fruita and went for a (HOT) run in Colorado National Monument. I have driven by the area many, many times (often stopping to run in the Loma area where the Kokopelli trail starts), but this was our first time actually in CO National Monument. 

After a world-class dinner at Munchies, we spent the night in Fruita and did a couple scenic overlooks on Rim Rock Drive the following morning before heading to our next stop: a little place called Aspen.

We went for a short afternoon hike up the Sunnyside trail in Aspen to get an overview of the valley. If I only had $10 million to drop on a house. :-)