Maroon Bells--Aspen Colorado

After our adventure in Glenwood Springs we drove to Aspen Colorado to do a little hiking and enjoying nature! I think it was pretty close to what heaven might look like! The scenery was absolutely beautiful!

We went to a place called Maroon Bells Scenic Wilderness Area. There were a few hikes throughout the wilderness area.

These are the Maroon Bells Mountains! Just as their name suggests they are maroon in color and shaped like bells.

To get to this Wilderness Area we had to take a up bus up to the top of the mountain. They have limited the amount of cars up the mountain because of all the pollution.

The first hike of our day started here at Maroon Bells Lake.

Our destination was 4.2 mile round-trip hike. It was well worth it and we loved every step of the way!

The scenery just kept getting more amazing! Every picture was like a post-card!

They don't call this place Aspen Colorado for nothing...check out all these aspen trees!

Part of the hike was through fields of green and rows and rows of aspen trees. We sure enjoyed the shady parts of the hike. We were glad we did this hike first thing in the morning, because it sure got hot fast!

It felt weird to hike without a little buddy on my back, and two other little hikers by my side! It was actually kind of nice to be able to go as fast as we wanted and have just the two of us hiking together!

It was also weird being the only one photographed! Usually we only take pictures of the kiddos! So I'm sorry for no kid pictures in this blog!

Here Nate is the King of the Mountain! Boy do I love that man!!

The interesting thing about the hike was how the scenery kept changing. It would be aspen hills, and then rocky areas with pine-trees. I loved it!

The hike wasn't too strenuous. But boy was it popular! There were many other hikers along the way.

I had never heard of the Maroon Bell Mountains before this trip, now I can't stop thinking about them! They were amazing.

I told Nate he needed to have worn a bright orange shirt so he stood out in the scenery! His green shirt makes him blend right in!

We were tempted to hike further to the pass at the top of the mountains but decided not to! We had heard it was still covered in snow!

We saw many waterfalls along the way. Many were probably straight from the snow melts, many of the peaks still had snow on them.

The destination was Crater Lake--nope not the same Crater Lake Oregon!

We made it!

Here we are at Crater Lake. Well worth the hike! It was absolutely wonderful up here!

We walked around the Lake and found a quiet little spot on a log to have our picnic lunch.

We wanted to hike all the way around the lake! It would have been awesome--but I think we would have had a hard time getting through some of the trees and willow-area.

I can't think of a more scenic place I've been to!

The columbines were in bloom and very pretty along the hike.

Here's another waterfall we saw coming off the mountain.

Once we had a little rest, ate our lunch, and enjoyed the scenery at the top it was time to say good-bye to the Maroon Bells and hike down the mountain.

The way down wasn't too bad, a little on the warm side though!

But the next hike was just as great! It was along the way and went right next to this raging river.

The stream cool and refreshing! We saw many people fishing in it along the way.

The hike went up to the top where there were water-falls.

The waterfalls weren't huge, but it was still awesome to see.

We were tempted to jump off the bridge and go for a little swim! Then we saw the white-raging river below and decided we would choose life not death!

This is the famous picture you think of then you hear the Maroon Bells.

Here is Nate with the Beaver Lodge. The late was so calm and reflective at that moment.

The Maroon Lake was so many different colors--from mossy green, to blue, dark green...

...it was a very scenic spot! This place would be a great place to go camping!

Another fabulous day on our Anniversary get-away!

There were fields and fields of wild-flowers! Along the way we saw every color of wild-flower in bloom. I wanted to gather them as I went and have a beautiful bouquet of flowers at the end, but Nate reminded me "Take only pictures, leave only footprints"!!

So that is what we did--we took many pictures along the way so we could remember our perfectly-wonderful, inspiring, hike just the two of us!!

Colorado's welcome sign says "Welcome to colorful Colorado" now I'm starting to understand that saying more and more! It truly is a beautiful state.

Nate had a lot of fun with the camera along the way taking great shots!

Have you ever seen a place so green before?! We felt like we were in the garden of Eden with all the greenery and flowers in bloom! I must admit it was hard thinking about going back to dry-and desolate Price Ut!!

This is an avalanche slide. You can see where the avalanche took out the trees along the path of destruction!

We said farewell to one of our new favorite places in the world! I'm not sure when we will go again some-day but this hike made me anxious to take the family and go somewhere this summer.

Our third and final hike of the day was to the bus stop!

There are 3 bus stops: one at the top where we were dropped off, the 2nd one down a little ways, and the 3rd clear down half-way down the mountain! We thought we might as well hike as much as we possibly could so why not hike to the last stop!! At first it was long this river...

...we thought to our selves "This hike is great! Right along the river!"

We had fun crossing all the bridges!!

And we enjoyed hearing the sound of the crashing river below.

But then all of a sudden the hike turned into a long, hot, through the wilderness--never ending hike! We found ourselves running to the end just so we could catch the bus!

You could only catch the bus every 30 minutes and we didn't want to miss it and be stuck up on the mountain all night! So boy did we hurry!

The scenery was still great but we didn't take the time to enjoy it like we did the other part of the day because we were so focused on catching the bus!

The worst part about the hike was it turned into a horse trail. If you know me at all you know I am allergic to horses! This is what the trail looked like, I swear the plants were covered in horse hair! By the time we got to the end my legs were covered in hives either from the horse hair or the weeds scratching my legs! Either way Nate and I were glad when this hike came to an end! And we even made it back to the bus stop just in time to catch the bus!!

Dinner in Aspen:
Nate and I were completely exhausted from our all day hike and running down the mountain! All we wanted was to sit down and enjoy food. We didn't even care what we ate! So we walked around the streets of Aspen looking for a place to eat. We asked at an Information desk where would be a good place for dinner--and they recommended Little Annie's. So we walked around a little more and finally found Little Annie's. We sat down in this small, dark, tavern like place that was loud and just unfriendly. We looked at the menu and decided this just wasn't the place for us!! So we got up walked out and continued walking around Aspen! Finally we found a cute little diner called "Boogies" which was just perfect for two tired travelers!

For all you NBA fans you might recognize this guy! We went to dinner and sat across from the Denver Nugget's Head Basketball Coach George Carl! Nate thought that was pretty awesome! Nate said "hello" as he was walking out. I wouldn't have known who that was, but Nate did. It made me wonder what other famous people are we passing and not recognizing here in Aspen?!

I drove all the way to Aspen and could not leave until I saw this spot: The John Denver Sanctuary! It's right there in Aspen along the river. It was worth the walk down there even if we were too tired! If you know me...you'll know my love for John Denver! As we drove through Colorado I couldn't help but listen to my favorite John Denver CD!


We stayed our last night in a nice lodge up Snowmass mountain called Pokolodi Lodge. Thank you expedia.com for a great deal on our nights stay!