I have always wanted to see Aspen. Now don’t make fun, but it happened after I watched dumb and dumber about 10 years ago. It just looked beautiful on the film and I always wanted to see it in person. Now I have, and it is just as beautiful as I hoped it would be. Now this article isn’t all sparkly and happy. I did have my disappointments in Aspen and I will explain it all here.
I drove through a lot of Colorado’s towns so I have a good idea on how to compare this town to the other towns in Colorado. When I arrived in Aspen, there were mountains, but not towering mountains like some other towns had. It was still very pretty though. It’s when you drive south of Aspen is where the scenery gets really intense. Just about 10 miles south of Aspen, so not far. This is where most of the hiking is.
Hiking
Maroon Bells is a very popular hiking destination in Aspen. Many people arrive here so parking is bad. If you want to drive to Maroon Bells yourself, arrive before 8am. After that you are more likely to pay 10 dollars for a bus to drive you there. This is just for the on-season. Off season you don’t have to worry about it. Anyway so at the roundabout in town, you just take the exit that says Maroon Bells; it’s very easy to get there. Just the one road will bring you all the way there. Here is a link to a topo of Maroon Bells if you would like.
There is camping all up this road in the Maroon Bells National Forest. It is very cheap. It’s 5 dollars for 5 nights. Not a bad price at all! So hiking in Maroon Bells can be easy day hiking or strenuous backpacking. It’s all up to you on how you want this experience to go.
Day hiking in Maroon Bells- The easiest of hikes is Maroon Lake itself and the Maroon Lake Scenic Trail. Both are short, but extraordinarily beautiful.
The scenic loop trail is about 1 mile long and Maroon Lake is pretty much right off the parking lot. There are dogs allowed in this National Forest but not on the scenic trail because there are too many moose there and the moose get aggressive towards the dogs. I didn’t think I was going to see a Moose but I did!
I was just walking on the trail, pretty much by myself, not many people on it, turned the corner and Bam!!!! Two moose literally right off the trail. What the hell was I going to do. Turn around and go back the way I came from or try and go around the moose. Yup that’s what I want to do. So I kinda did a little bush-wacking and went around the moose to the best of my abilities with the environment around me. Every time I steeped on a branch, he would look at me, and then I would tell him “I’m not threat, please don’t step on me.” And he didn’t. I must speak moose! Lol, I’m just kidding.
Anyway, there is also Crater Lake. This is passed Maroon Lake. This hike is a little more intermediate. Many people didn’t make it up here, but I wouldn’t say it is difficult. Your not going up a peak but you are gaining elevation. This hike only takes a couple hours and its pretty heavy in traffic.
I was very impressed of what I did see on this trail.
This hike wasn’t easy. It pretty much went uphill the entire time. I saw a couple things that blew my mind. First there were two kids bombing this trail! I was impressed. They must have been 6/7 and they just knew there way around the trail.
Note: If you look closely you can see the two kids running along the trail.
I also saw this very determined hiker in crutches making it up this path.
Now this path is not easy. There are rocks everywhere with steep elevation and snow in some areas, and this guy is literally trying to make it on crutches. I just had to talk with him and take his picture. I got his permission to put it on this blog. He was with two of this buddies and all three of them were very friendly. It’s moments like these that keep me going.
If you want, for a longer hike, probably overnight, you can walk all the way to crested butte from this trail (another town). All you do is keep going passed crater lake and follow the trail till you get there. I couldn’t do it. The pass was covered in snow still. So yes, the Maroon Bells area is a must do! You get to see sights like this. ..
Oh, and one other thing. You can go fishing here too. Usually when you are in a National Forest though, that’s a pretty good indicator for being allowed to fish. But could you imagine fishing in this lake. It’s got to be epic!
Another hiking area is pretty much right next to Maroon Bells. All you do for this one is go on the road right next to it.. This road is called castle creek road and it will lead you to other hiking destinations. I attempted two hikes, American Lake and Cathedral Lake. Cathedral Lake is a must do! It’s on the listing of top hikes in Aspen. So I set off to hike Cathedral Lake first and I saw a sign that showed the trail continuing after Cathedral Lake to Electric Pass.
So here I am in the parking lot, pacing back and forth, back and forth. I was just planning on doing a day hike to Cathedral Lake. I had no idea it could be turned into a backpacking experience and continue onto Electric Pass. Should I or shouldn’t I. Screw it, I am! So I threw all my backpacking supplies together and set off!
I am going backpacking, yay!!!!! Scared but excited. Up and up I go. This trail is steep! Especially with a pack on and I am still not accustomed to the elevation. 
Everything is going all right. Kinda scared, in bear country and haven’t seen a single soul yet. Oh wait, there is somebody!
“Hey, is there anybody camping at Cathedral Lake?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t even make it up to the top because it was snowed in.”
Shit! Snowed in!!! Well, I’m going to try it out anyway. This man didn’t seem to be a hiker pro so I was going to check it out myself. Still going up and up and ran into someone else about 45 minutes later.
“Hey is there anybody camping up at Cathedral Lake?”
“I don’t know, I couldn’t make it up because I got snowed in.”
Hmmmmmm. Assessing my situation. Well if they can’t make it up and their day hikers, then there is no way I can with a pack. So I took off my pack and continued up it with just some water, bear spray, music and a whistle.
Oh no. They were right. The trail ended up becoming pretty intense so I decided to turn back and did not make it up to Cathedral Lake. I really wanted to though, but being all alone in the wilderness, I decided to make the safer decision and turn around. Got some pretty good views though.
So I went down to the trail head and I’m glad I did. That just would have been to intense of a hike for the beginning of June. So I cleaned and organized my car instead.
Living out of a little Chevy Cruise isn’t that bad. Everything has a place and I don’t have to dig for anything. Every item is pretty accessible considering all my belongings are in there.
Anyway, so I woke up in the morning and attempted another hike along this road. Oh and before I forget, there is no service outside of Aspen. It was very lonely for three days. So, I attempted American Lake.
Now this is where the story gets interesting.
I set off onto this journey about 7am or earlier and it started off great! High spirits and sunshine!
And of coarse, up and up I go. This area starts off at high elevation and while hiking, the trail wastes no time getting you higher and higher.
Saw some pretty cool things. There were trees with these markings on them.
Markings like I have never seen before. I don’t know if the trees had a disease or if that is what the tree looked like naturally. Well, eventually, I reached snow.
Now I just turned around on my last trail and didn’t get to my destination. So this time, I was more eager to push through the snow and try to make it to the lake. It wasn’t bad at the beginning. But then it got worse and worse.
Till pretty soon I was in knee to hip length deep in snow.
You would think that I was smart enough to turn around. Unfortunately, this time I wasn’t. I was incredibly stubborn and determined to make it up this lake so I kept pushing when I shouldn’t have. This was the first video I made when I was assessing my situation.
So of coarse I decided to keep going. Here is my second video I made if your interested to see what I was going through.
So up and up I go, scrapping my legs with snow every time I fell through. Finally made it out of the forest and got some good views but the dangerous hiking continued.
I
I was probably less than a quarter mile from the lake, but I didn’t care anymore. I was so drained and felt so depleted from falling over and over again, plus the trail wasn’t getting any easier. I finally realized even though I just did all that work getting up to that point, that no lake is worth getting hurt over. I was on my way of really hurting myself and putting myself in danger. So I finally turned around which was amazing. I was really proud of myself that I did that. Unfortunately it was too late though for my morality. I had a pretty tough time getting down. Kinda broke down a bit. I was all alone in bear country, feet numb because of the ice, scrapes up my legs, my music shut off which is my everything and I was having a pretty rough time. This is the video of me coming down after I passed all the snow.
One good thing did come out of this experience. I asked myself if this was a regrettable experience. And I responded to myself with a No because I learned something. It took me a total of three time to finally realize what I was trying to attempt in the beginning of June. Trying to hike up peaks, passes and even some lakes in Aspen at the beginning of June is just not advisable, unless you have the proper equipment which I didn’t.
So my next stop was going to be Rocky Mountain National Park, and realized that probably wasn’t the smartest idea. It would be alright if I wasn’t a peak person but I am and if I went to Rocky Mountain National Park I would have either gotten into trouble or been stuck near the base of the mountains. So I decided to go to Arches National Park instead and that was probable the best decision I could have made for myself on this trip that I am on.
Town of Aspen: What to expect.
Aspen has great hiking and great scenery. As for the town itself, now I am just giving my honest opinion and I am sorry if I upset anyone, I really wasn’t too fond of it. Everything was insanely over-priced! A gallon of water was almost 4 dollars, the gas is outrageous, and even taking a shower in their recreation center was expensive. Even parking at the library cost money! It just seemed that everything you wanted to do there cost money and it was over-priced.
There are ways of getting around it in some areas. There is free camping. The road that leads you into American Lake and Cathedral Lake. You can pull off on that road and camp. Now its not luxurious camping but it’s free! Just go onto
www.freecampsites.net
There is no reception though. Even in the regular campgrounds you won’t have reception. It is pretty dead up there.
So that was my experience up at Aspen! Overall I loved it. I just didn’t like how everything was insanely over-priced and if I could do it again, I wouldn’t go in the beginning of June. You are really limited to hiking. Hope you enjoyed!!!!
Shelly/livingonthedirt 🙂
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