First Morning at the Maroon Bells

On Friday July 30th, Peter & I left Fort Collins and headed West to go camping with Doug, Heidi and Molly. We traveled to a campground named "Difficult Campground" which was about 5 miles from Aspen. The entire trip took about 6 hours as we had to drive through some rain storms and then up and over Independence Pass (about 12,000 ft). Views were breathtaking for most of the way. Hard to say something bad about the landscape in Colorado. We passed through small mining towns like Leadville that would be great to return to at a slower pace.

We arrived at our campground about 6PM and it was raining. Not hard, just enough to make it a bit miserable setting up camp. After setting up, we chose to drive into Aspen to see what nightlife was like and to grab a bite to eat. Much easier than cooking on a camp stove in the drizzle! By the time we arrived in Aspen it had stopped raining and we ate outside at a restaurant called Mustang. We were treated to some live music at the eatery and to some great people watching. Many art galleries in Aspen and all seemed to be doing a good business....at least there were a lot of lookers. We had a leisurely meal and drove back to the campsite about 9PM. Headed right into the tent after cleaning up as the sun had already gone down by that time and we were tired. It had been about 5 years since I had been camping and sleeping on the ground. Sleeping was not easy and I chose to get up during the night and sleep in the van. Peter stayed in the tent for the night!

On Saturday morning, we were waiting for Doug, Heidi and Molly to arrive so we decided to take a drive and explore the area around the Maroon Bells. The weather was great! No rain! And the skies were blue! The best part was the abundance of wildflowers in the area. Other hikers that we met along the path told us that this year was the best for wildflowers. We picked a great time to visit. After our walk, and picture taking, we headed back to camp to relax and have lunch. Doug, Heidi & Molly arrived at about 3 in a downpour! Peter & I were in the process of putting up an extra structure that would be used as an eating shelter. Done in the nick of time! By the time the rains stopped (for that day) our tent was in the middle of a river.....
such fun when camping......