As the first rays of sun were lighting up the maroon peaks, we could also see their first reflections in Maroon Lake.
It's early and it's cold at this altitude even in the middle of the summer. Denisa has on two jackets this morning, and is wishing for gloves!
While we waited for the sun to light up the rest of the valley, we started the half-mile scenic loop that took us the length of the lake. Mark is wishing for gloves too!
Things always look so green and fresh in the first light of the morning!
Then we returned to the front-and-center spot to take our own iconic pictures of the Maroon Bell mountains reflected in the lake with just the right morning light.
This was the kind of picture that Denisa had seen years ago, and that we wanted to witness and take for ourselves. You might imagine that we actually took about forty of these pictures, but we finally whittled it down to a few of our favorites for the blog.
We struck up a conversation with a man that got here when it was still completely dark this morning. He had been standing in front of Maroon Lake taking pictures from every angle for hours. So he offered to take a picture of the two of us together. But by now the clouds are beginning to shade some of the mountains, and we were glad that we already got our best photos.
All around us these craggly maroon mountains are being lit up by the rising sun. It was quite a spectacle!
Now that we've gotten our perfect picture, we are on the trail that takes us further into the Maroon Bell wilderness. We started through the aspen groves with the sun still low in the sky behind us.
We're headed two miles down the trail to Crater Lake, and we are blown away by the beauty around us! We took entirely too many pictures that we wanted to keep for the blog. So while you are scrolling through these pictures, we're going to describe more of the process of visiting this beautiful place.
The Maroon Bell mountains are about 13 miles south of Aspen, down a curvy road that was seeing way too much traffic because of the popularity of this beautiful place. So rules were made to protect this area and control the crowds.
As we did our research, we found that passenger vehicles can only be on the road towards the Bells before 8 a.m. and after 5 p.m. Between those hours, the only way to get here is to ride a shuttle bus from Aspen.
Oh look, while we were talking about transportation, Mark and Denisa have made it to Crater Lake, with more beautiful mountains towering behind it.
This would have been a nice four-mile hike if we returned to the car now. But look at those sweeping views of more mountains ahead of us. How can we leave without seeing what's further down this trail?
Besides that, the wildflowers are really nice as well!
So we headed deeper into the lovely Maroon Bells wilderness--taking more pictures along the way.
Now, back to our information about getting to this beautiful place. After researching how it used to be, we had to learn the new rules for 2020. After being completely closed because of Covid, the decision was made to finally reopen this summer. Now reservations must be made for a parking pass. Because we were on-line on the day that reservations were opened on June 15, we got the most flexible 24-hour parking pass that allowed us to come and stay as long as we wanted--as long as we arrived before 8 a.m.
There are other parking time options, but we noticed that they were all full by the time we visited the Bells. The shuttle is also available, but must be reserved for a specific time. There is a fee for the shuttle, where our driving and parking pass was free because we have an annual national park pass.
While the shuttles held 45 people last summer, they are limited to 15 people in 2020 to allow for social distancing. So it is obviously much harder to get a shuttle ticket this year. But the good news is that this beautiful area is less crowded than ever before.
We're continuing to hike, blown away by the majesty of God's wonders that we are wandering in today! All day long, we found ourselves whispering a prayer of thanks for letting us be here.
We've taken pictures of purple columbines all summer, but this was the first time we have seen white columbines.
We're not sure how far we're going to hike today, but we are talking to other hikers on this trail. Some are making the eleven mile hike that goes from the Maroon Bells all the way to Crested Butte. That takes some planning and a shuttle driver. Even though it's a short 11-mile hike through the mountains, a car will have to drive 121 miles on highways and gravel roads, and the car trip will take 4 hours. That means that after hiking eleven miles, the hiker would have to ride another 4 hours to get back to his car parked at the Maroon Bells! Wow!
These pink-colored mountains around us mean that we are finding pink-colored piles of rocks. When you find piles of rocks at this altitude, you will probably find marmots and pikas.
The pikas today are unusually friendly, letting us take pictures from a good distance near their rock homes.
Unlike the lazy marmots that seem to spend all their time sunning on a rock, the pikas are always busy gathering greens. We watched as this guy nibbled his way across the grass in front of the rocks.
He gave us a smile as he looked straight at the camera with his full mouth of grass. He will take these to his home rock where he will dry them in the sun. When they are dried, they will be stored in underground tunnels for food this winter.
By this time, we have hiked far into the wilderness area. Now most of the people we are seeing are hiking the popular 28-mile/4 mountain pass loop. These people are carrying 50-pound backpacks with their tents and bedrolls and enough food to last for the usual four days it will take for this journey.
We can tell the ones that are on their first day, because they are walking lightly in their clean clothes and chatting with their companions. We also met those on their fourth day, walking gingerly with their sore feet and re-worn clothes. They are less chatty and are just ready to get off their feet. It was interesting to watch the parade of these hard-core hikers. We talked to one older gentleman that had just finished the 28 miles (with 8,000 in elevation change) in a pair of Crocs! That was his preferred hiking boot!
At four miles, we decided it was time to turn back while we still had enough energy to get ourselves back to the car. Even those hard-core hikers will only hike an average of 7 miles per day, and it looks like we are hiking over 8 today. But we passed this interesting crevice high above the trail, with a huge waterfall coming out of the crease of the rock.
For some unknown reason, we decided that we would hike straight up that scree field of loose rocks and take a closer look at that waterfall. After a valiant effort, Denisa finally decided she could go no further, but Mark kept going. He took the picture you see below. If you squint your eyes just right, you can see Denisa's bright pink blouse close to the right hand side of the picture. It looks like she didn't make it very high until you know that no amount of squinting will let you see the trail because it is so far down there.
Mark even gave up eventually, and finally made his way back down to where Denisa was waiting. Then the two of us had to figure out a way to get down off this very steep, very scrabbly rock mountain. What a mess! We learned a lesson today. These mountains are so tall and massive that it is easy to think that everything is just an easy hike away. It is not!
By the time we hiked back to the parking area, we had logged over 9 miles and 1600 feet in elevation today. The Maroon Bells mountain range is just as good as we thought it would be. Now we have a better understanding of why they are the most-photographed mountains in North America.
We couldn't help but stop at the perfect photo spot to have one more look at the iconic picture of the Maroon Bells. Even though it is still beautiful, the afternoon lighting and the cloudy skies dim the maroon colors. It was mighty early when we got up this morning, but it was worth it to see this place in the first light of the day. We have certainly wandered into one of God's most beautiful (and photographed) wonders today!
No comments:
Post a Comment