On the Road with Maya: East of Aspen

Looking east from the Continental Divide at Independence Pass

Pass Gas, last chance for gas before heading up the pass

From our campground near Twin Lakes it was only a few miles until Colorado Hwy 82 through Independence Pass started twisting and turning its way upward toward the Continental Divide. Soon the sign appeared: “Vehicles over 35 feet not allowed.” Maya and I were in the car following David and Silver through the pass because we would have been too long to go through hooked together.

Looking towards Independence Pass from near top of Lostman Trail

There was all kind of traffic headed up – cars, motorcycles, small RVs, bicycles, and even a group of three people in formation on some sort of ski-skates! This looked crazy-dangerous to me. But going through Independence Pass by whatever means you can, seems to be some sort of ‘rite-of-passage’ for many. David slowed Silver down to almost a stop a few times as he had to pass the bicycles and skaters carefully on the narrow road with practically no shoulder and so much traffic in the on-coming lane. But all in all, it wasn’t too scary and we made it to the top of the Continental Divide and started our descent towards Aspen.

Independence Lake from Lostman Trail at 12,500 feet

There are three campgrounds between the top of Independence Pass and Aspen and we were hoping to find a place at one of them. We had already ruled out Difficult Campground, the nearest to Aspen, as too difficult to get into because it was reservation only and summer reservations must often be made a year in advance. The first of the two campgrounds left for us to choose from was called, Lostman. This campground, at over 10,500 feet in elevation, was small with only ten campsites nestled in a dense lodgepole pine and spruce forest. A small tributary of the Roaring Fork River ran next to the campground. Since there was a nice site available and Lostman Trailhead was just across the highway with trails we wanted to hike, there was no need to look further. We set up camp just in time for the afternoon thunderstorms.

High country on Lostman Trail, Independence Pass in distance

Looking down on Lostman Lake from the top of Lostman Pass at 12,800 feet

So Lostman, east of Aspen, became our home for the next week while we took hikes in the high country and drove into Aspen a few times. Forty years ago this summer, David and I spent our honeymoon in Aspen. My dad had a friend with a condo there and we were able to spend a week in Aspen. We had a fabulous trip and even went to mountain climbing school for a few days. But in all this time, we have never returned.

Maroon Bells, tops covered with clouds

Maroon Bells, almost the 'Full Monty'

Maybe we had other things on our minds for our honeymoon, maybe our memories are fading or maybe a lot can change in 40 years but we didn’t recognize too many things in Aspen. It is still a beautiful skiing town with some historic buildings and many million-dollar plus homes (a lot of plusses on that million) and it has grown. But the things we did remember – the forests, Maroon Bells peaks, the Roaring Fork River Valley and the mountain (or mostly a rock pile) where we learned to climb – were all the same. Just more people…

This is where David and I learned to climb on our honeymoon

Maya makes friends with some backpackers on the bus

One day we took Maya with us to hike around Maroon Lake. Because of the great numbers of visitors to this area, only busses are allowed in between 8 am and 5 pm. So, we all rode the bus and Maya was quite popular. Everyone wanted to give her pets and she shamelessly encouraged them. When we arrived, Maroon Bells were shrouded in clouds but by the time we left, the clouds had mostly lifted and the ‘Bells’ were strutting their stuff. It was fun to see this beautiful place again and good that the forest service is trying to keep the area from being just one huge parking lot.

Exploring large rock formations along the Grottos Trail

Since our campground had some shorter easier trails nearby, it was nice that we could take Maya for walks with us after we took our longer hikes. Two of those longer hikes took us well above 12,000 feet. David and I may be ready to visit Peru and climb Machu Picchu soon. Well, we were breathing hard on the climbs so maybe a bit more training is needed.

Linkins Lake, 12,008 feet

Yellow-bellied marmot near Linkins Lake (a.k.a. whistle pigs for the sound they make)

It did rain on us every day although we managed to stay dry on most of our hikes. Because of the shadiness of our campground and the cloud cover, we didn’t make much solar energy and thus had to be very careful of power usage. Normally, when this happens we can run our generator but as we were camping above 10,500 feet, the generator wasn’t tuned for high altitudes and wouldn’t start. Even the refrigerator complained and had trouble from time to time. We learned some lessons about camping in our RV at high altitudes and hopefully can be better prepared next time we stay for more than just a day or two above 10,000 feet.