Hike in the Maroon Bells

The Maroon Bells is considered the most photographed site in Colorado, and being adjacent to Aspen, literally on the edge of town, they are very popular place to go just for the scenery or to hike

This is the money shot

So, we planned a day up at the Maroon Bells -- the day was scheduled, so we went, even though it was wet, raw, a bit cold, raining and in the verge of pouring. So we decked ourselves in warm gear, rain pants, rain jackets, and waterproof boots. A couple of hours later we were back to the car "relatively" dry, expect for a pocket area that I left open.

My copy of the money shot.

The sun may pop out, or it may rain heavily

Maroon Creek 

Nice view

Fireweed in the fog

View down Maroon Lake 

Juxtaposed aspens, fog and peaks.

Access

Sometimes getting to a river can be an experience, for this river the best spots called for a walk down a railroad track.

Thank goodness that it was not an active track

What to expect in Aspen

Okay Aspen is the place of $4+ gasoline, LOTS of private jets, BIG houses, fancy cars, etc...

I think we found the most appropriate sign for Aspen. It was not a sign for 50% off sale, or a homemade yard sale sign.

It was this. Yup is says "Be Prepared to Spend"

The stores in Aspen are the same ones that you see in Manhattan, and most stores noted that fact with signage: Zenga, Prada, Kate Spade, Lauren, etc. with New York on all signs

But I think this clothing store has the leg up.  Who would think that East Africa would be trendy enough to promote in Aspen! .....  "We are so cool, we just do not need to be in NYC".   I wonder if they have a store in East Africa that says Aspen, Western USA.

Scenes from the Basalt Condo

In past posts, I have offered up some "scenes from the campground" and noted that the Frisco camping was "urban camping"

Well we are currently in the condo in Basalt (15 minutes north of Aspen), we have captured the total scene of the surroundings and offer true urban living.

Thus "Scenes from the Condo"

Directly across the street, with a storm brewing

A bit of weather over the Whole Foods parking lot -- yes it is that close!

On the balcony

View uptown from the balcony

Down from the balcony

The kitchen store

Just outside of the condo -- which is above on the 2nd floor

Restaurant Row (Asian, BBQ, and Mexican)

Differences in Fires

We like to have fires in the campsite, or wherever home is that night.

One can gauge the fire by the amount of money that you burn. We actually bought firewood at $6/bundle

This is $3 fire... just enough to offer a glow and some warmth - sit real close

This is a $9 fire -- burn all the remaining wood before leaving the campground. Sit far away.

This is the over $200 fire..  in the Basalt condo.

Home is ...... Basalt CO.

Yup, we are in Basalt.. about 10 miles north of Aspen, in the Roaring Fork valley

We were here last year but we stayed in the campground 12 miles up the canyon. This time we have rented a "very nice" condo in the newly developed part of Basalt. As I type, I am watching the ebb and flow into Whole Foods (I see it from the window). Whole Foods is a one minute walk! We have no need to go to the Starbucks (just a 3 minute walk out the door) as we have our own espresso machine and internet service.

We decided to come to Basalt to balance the need for good fishing with a spot that has internet access, so that I can fish and Alicia can work in the project that has become a major deal (problems that just need to be solved). The project is taking twice as long as expected with twice as many issues as originally anticipated.  Sheesh! is the common expression,,, or maybe something a little more expressive.

This is not urban camping, or glamping...  it's a bit decadent, but well deserved.

Oh ... and the place is not to shabby!!  Loft living.

Place names

In the past we took photos of signs of towns named Opportunity, or Success or something inspiring

This one caught us a bit off guard. 

Is the place called No Name or do the place have no name?? Is the only thing in No Name a rest area?

And now for something completely .... the same!

Or, why there has been a drop off on blog posts.

We did have expectations of spending time in Rocky Mountain National Park, but the ridiculous scene in Estes Park, and the lack of internet access, somewhat forced us to make alternate plans.

We considered our needs --in this case, some stuff hit the fan on a project Alicia is working on and she absolutely needed internet access. Well, we knew exactly were to go....  Back to Summit County and hopefully the same campground that we were in in late June/early July.

With fingers crossed we found the exact same EXCELLENT campsite that we stayed back then. And the good news is that the river flows were back to normal. So, we had the excellent site, internet service (Actually, Alicia has taken to spending time at the library), and fishable rivers.

Regarding the blog, it was hard to more or less repost campground pictures and stories, scenes from the campground, pictures of Frisco, etc.

There are subtle differences tho. The nighttime temps are a bit colder. We wake up and the temperatures could be in the high 40F or low 50F. Remember, we are living up at over 9000ft. Winter starts soon!

If you want to relive this area you can review the past posts.

start here

A look at Boulder

The last time I was in Boulder was possibly 30 years ago, or something around there. I had been there to climb "way back" and they revisited with a friend some time later.

Boulder has certainly grown.

The main thing is that technology companies are now everywhere: from Boulder to Longmont to Fort Collins. While Boulder was a college based vibrant town "back then", Longmont and Fort Collins were well out of the spotlight: not any more!

The one really obvious characteristic of Boulder if bicycling - EVERYONE is on a bike, there are regular bike races, the town is completely set up to support bike transportation. I thought Jackson WY and Sun Valley were bike friendly -- Boulder is the champ!

But then a friend who has lived there for 30 year laments the fact that "It is way too crowded". The river are crowded with fishing people, the climbing areas are crowded, the roads have lots of traffic, .... A conversation that seems to come up often is; where are are "is too crowded" -- Friends are now saying the same thing about Jackson Hole.

I guess the long and short of it is we need to start to look for the towns that haven't yet been "californicated"  -- maybe Durango and Pagoda Springs?

The Flatirons

The Flatirons is a geological rock formation that overlooks Boulder, it may define Boulder in many ways as it is so prominent in the west and easily depicts the Front Range as they rise so quickly out of the plains. The Flatirons draw people to them and in the late 1800, it drew the Chautauquas.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chautauqua
http://www.chautauqua.com/history_cca.html

Today you access the Flatirons from Chautauqua Park.

Quite a while ago, while climbing here, I ascended the 3rd Flatiron, via the Standard Route, pretty much up the middle.

Flatirons: from the right, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. The most notable from a rock climbing perspective, 3rd, then 1st. The 2nd, phtt.

So we went off on a hike of the flatirons, among a throng of people.  This formation is SO accessible that it draws people by the 100s. And you can get some excellent views with only a moderate hike. But, there are a LOT of people on a Sunday.

The 3rd flatiron

First view of Boulder from the hike 

2nd Flatiron

Ariel the wonder dog... sit, stay, ..good dog!

Another Boulder shot

Just can't get enough shots of the 3rd. .. a classic look and a great, fun climb

A man and his flatirons

Overlooking Boulder and the orange roofs of the Univ. of Colorado

A small portion of the crowd... we have been staying well north in the foothills in the photo.

High atop the Rocky Mtns.

We took the day to travel up to Rocky Mountain National Park. It was Saturday -- sheesh, someone should have told me to stay away. Estes Park, the entrance to RMNP was a complete zoo. Picture your favorite mountain tourist town and double or triple the bad days (like North Conway during leaf season but worse).

Estes Park was bad, but RMNP was excellent. .. even with the traffic

We had intended to search out areas for future activities (Camping, fishing, hiking), but the zoo like nature of Estes Park suggested that we re-think that.

We did finally get to RMNP and we revisited a few things we did years ago, but then took a drive that we did not do when we were more focused on mountaineering.

We decided to drive to the Alpine Garden, an area well above treelike, at nearly 12,000ft. This was really a scary drive - no guardrails, and what looked to be about 2500-3000 plunge if you took your eye off the road. Alicia, on the passenger side, chose to not look in many cases. I, the driver, chose to drive about 20MPH. Other drivers were more secure at about 10, or driving with most their car on the wrong side of the double lines (away from the plunge). Sorry but pictures along that section of the drive were out of the question... no place to pull over, and if we did, the wind could have blown me to  Nebraska.

You drive up and arrive at what is a plateau at 12,000 Ft - the area is tundra. Anything up there has a short period of "Summer" and then they get pounded by snow and winds up 100MPH.

You are at the top of the world, at least in this location.

This is a bit of what we saw:

Upper mountain weather from down in the valley.

Well up in elevation, notice the road,  that's the non-scary part.

Surrounding views at nearly 12,000 Ft

T E B Alicia  --------  The ever beautiful -- in her parka - temp around 58F

The tundra, and a small section of the road to the left.

Alpine plant survivors in the tundra

Very short "yellow" indian paintbrush -- somewhat rare in my experience

More Views

Can you see the road?  this is the safe section.

Yellow paintbrush again with exceptional red foliage.