Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness

Post 31

There is no place like home! And we have officially started our trek back West. Originally after two shows in Missouri our path was suppose to take us through Oklahoma City before heading into Iowa, Illinois and Minnesota prior to truly heading West into South Dakota and beyond. However, the big wigs who pay for us to be on this amazing adventure all summer traveling across the country and inspiring others to get out and enjoy the wilderness as we do, thought it would be a good idea for us to attend the chaos that is the biggest outdoor gear convention in the US if not the world. So unfortunately we had to cancel the Oklahoma City show (Sorry y’all, we’ll come through next year I promise) and drive ourselves 18 hours from Missouri to Salt Lake City Utah. Don’t get me wrong, I do like driving and taking in all the diverse scenery that our vast country has to offer, but really guys (scientists) when are you going to invent the teleporter already?

So, with two and a half days to drive this arduous path, we of course planed on making the best of it by driving most of the mileage on day one, where in leaving us a day to explore a part of the Colorado Rockies we’d never visited.

The iconic photo of Colorado’s dueling 14,000 foot Maroon Bells conjure up feelings of a majestic rugged landscape, harsh yet inviting. I’ve seen hundreds of photos of these striking peaks and have been awaiting the day that I would see them with my own eyes. I’m sure you’ve all seen these images before as well, even if you didn’t know that these dramatic mountains were what you were looking at. I only hoped that I hadn’t built them up in my own mind too much and that they would disappoint. 

We passed overnight backpackers who we stopped to exchange small talk with. I admitted to them my jealousy of their great fortune to be able to spend multiple nights in this playground. At the same time they expressed their extreme envy of our summer spent traveling and exploring. A mischievous marmot blocked our path which we didn’t entirely mind, other than it was clear that the routine afternoon thundershowers were rapidly moving in. As we crested the lip of the mountain and stood atop Willow Pass we knew with almost complete certainty that our return trek would be a wet one. So we quickly took our celebratory summit photos and began our knee aching descent into the rain.

Exiting the bus and catching a glimpse of the mountains through the trees did indeed not disappoint. The setting even improved as we made our way down to Maroon lake where an unobstructed view across the shallow lagoon displayed the two bell shaped summits towering above. As can be expected this is a very popular tourist attraction and it wasn’t until two miles up trail at Crater lake that the crowds started to thin. From there we had another three and a half miles and 2,500 feet elevation gain to the top of Willow Pass which would be our turn around point. The trail began in thick aspen groves which gave way to pine trees and eventually stunted shrubs, bushes and tall grasses. We climbed through open meadows where the wildflowers had already climaxed and were withering, into hillsides set ablaze with vibrant color and further up to ridges that were on the cusp of a dazzling bloom.