Bryant and I had an incredible weekend hiking to Crested Butte from Aspen with a group of friends. Despite discouraging weather early Saturday morning, we were blessed with an incredible day. It was absolutely perfect.
We met at 6:00am and drove together to the Maroon Bells trail head, about 20 minutes outside of Aspen. We loaded up our gear and headed out of the parking lot around 7:00am with high hopes, but the weather looked pretty gloomy. About 100 yards out of the parking lot, the lightening was so close, you could feel the electriciy in the air and the thunder rattled into your bones. We decided to wait it out for a little bit. On our way back to the shelter, the hail pounded our heads and backs. We waiting about 20 minutes until we had a window of opportunity and gave it a second chance. By 7:30 we were on our way! About 1/2 mile into the hike the hail started pounding us again, so we took shelter under a big tree. After this storm let up, not a single drop of hail or rain fall the rest of the day. It was really amazing.
We hiked through some of the most incredible country I have ever seen. From Crater Lake to the exposed saddle on top of West Maroon, the views were spectacular. This was by far the most amazing scenery I have even seen on a hike.
The wildflowers deserve their own paragraph. Due to the huge snowpack we had last winter, the ground is still pretty soggy in areas, but the wildflowers are absolutely incredible! We were surrounded by meadows of color almost the entire hike.
Emily Garaffa (who is preggers) offered to pick us up at the trailhead on the Crested Butte side. We made the 45 minute drive into town and found our little Victorian house in town. I found this house on www.vrbo.com, which is my new favorite site for vacation rentals. It was very quaint and only 1 block from downtown Crested Butte.
Sunday we walked around the farmer's market in CB and made the 3 hour trip home.
We had such an incredible weekend. You can enjoy our pictures by clicking on our picture gallery on the right.
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