Friday September 22nd
I left Rifle Falls a bit before seven, about 10 minutes later than I had planned. I had timed bookings for two things that day, and needed to make sure I made them on time. Both these hikes were very popular, and required booking a particular time window to get there. First up was the Hanging Lake hike near Glenwood Springs, about an hour’s drive away. My friend Shannon who lives in Colorado said, if you see one thing see this, so I made sure I did!
It was just before sunrise when I set out. There was no mobile coverage in the park, so I couldn’t set up Google maps. I thought from memory that I needed to continue further along the road that I was on, so I set off, but after a few minutes it became clear this wasn’t it, it turned into a dirt road or hit a dead end or something. So then I rushed back, well aware of the time ticking. It turned out I needed to go back a bit, then turn off, but without Google I'm pretty sure I ended up going the long way around, back through Rifle and along the I-70 to Glenwood Springs, then to the trailhead.
It was an interesting drive, following the Colorado River again, ending up going through a bit of a canyon, then the trail parking lot actually had its own exit off the highway, going under the highway. Oddly you could only get back onto the other side of the highway, not the same side, though this suited me, as I was wanting to go back to another highway afterwards. The Colorado River was right next to the parking area. They checked my pass, and I parked and started up the trail.
I was running a bit later than I’d planned, so I hot footed it up the hike. It was quite a steep climb to the lake, and took me about 45 minutes pushing pretty hard, which was significantly less time than AllTrails had suggested. The hike was up through an impressive narrow canyon, with great views of it as you gained altitude. There were falls near the top, then I came out to the lake itself. It’s called Hanging Lake because the lake is perched on the edge of the cliff face.
The lake was pretty, with some small waterfalls running into it, and reflections of the impressive cliffs of higher parts of the canyon walls above it. When I got there, around 9am, the sun was shining on the canyon walls, but not on the lake itself yet. There weren’t a lot of people around, which was nice. I stayed there a little while, then headed down again, in about half an hour, back to the river and parking lot.
Next up was the Maroon Bells hike. To get there, you had to catch a shuttle bus from a ski resort near the famous town of Aspen, called Aspen Highlands. The problem was that there was limited parking for the shuttle bus there. It wasn’t clear if the parking would accommodate the van, and also whether there would be parking spaces available when I got there. I found a number I could ring, and found out that the maximum length for a vehicle in the car park was something like 21 feet, and my van was 20 feet, so it would just fit! But there was some question as to whether there would be parking available.
I had found there was a shuttle bus going from the town of Aspen to this resort where you could then catch the other shuttle bus, and I thought that would be a safer plan. But when I asked about that, it turned out there was nowhere to park in Aspen to get this bus, and you would have to take a bus from another parking lot further out, to then get to Aspen, then bus #2 to the Highlands, then bus #3 to the start of the hike! This seemed like it would take forever, and I didn’t have a lot of time. I was considering scrapping the whole thing, but I decided to go to the Aspen Highlands car park (or “parking garage” as they call them in the US), and see if I could get a park for the Maroon Bells bus, and if not, do something else.
All this took a while on the phone, but I eventually set off. I couldn’t find this parking garage on Google Maps, so I drove to where I thought the resort was. I think because one of the URLs for the website that talked about the parking mentioned Snowmass, I ended up in Snowmass Village, from a turn-off on the highway, a bit before Aspen. It was a little drive to get to the village, with a detour because of roadworks, and I found myself on a road with a shopping centre, some villas, and a multi-storey car park. After going around and not finding anything else, I thought the car park must be where I needed to park.
So I went in, and this turned out to be a mistake! A 20’ van in a tight multi-storey car park was not a good thing. I was starting to think that this was not the place, and wondering what to do. I ended up driving into a dead-end, with the only option to back out, and trying to work out if I could ring someone to find out whether this really was the place. There was a phone nearby, but I wasn’t sure that it looked like a proper phone that would get me through to someone. Just then, what seemed like some kind of hidden door opened, and a car came out of it, and headed for me. I was blocking his exit, so I got out and went up to him to see if he could help me.
I think the Lord must have sent him just at that time, because he was very helpful. He told me that this wasn’t the place, and knew where the right parking lot was, and knew what to look for on Google to get me there. He told me I could back out and down a little way, and then turn to get out the exit. I was very thankful! I drove down the exit ramp, which had tight curves and was extremely narrow. I was nearly out, when I heard a horrible scraping noise – some part of the van had scraped against the concrete side of the tunnel! I wondered what on earth I’d done to the van.
I escaped from the parking lot, and drove out towards the other car park, which turned out to be in another little resort about 25 minutes drive away, back out and onto the highway, then in again to the other resort. I was pretty stressed, because it was getting nearer and nearer to when the shuttle bus would depart, and I think there were no second chances, if you missed it, that was it, unless there were any spots from people who hadn’t turned up on the next one. I was starting to wonder if I should even try to get to the other car park, and if it would be just as bad.
I went anyway, and when I got a chance, pulled over to inspect the damage. I couldn’t see anything. I figured in the end that I had scraped the corner of the running board, but that had already had a corner scraped off when I got it, so I just scraped it a bit more. I was very thankful the Lord had protected me! I got to the other resort, which was just by itself more or less I think, not in a town, and the car park had a big area that was in the open. The spaces were tight, but I found a spot with two empty spaces next to each other! I gratefully parked there, and headed quickly into the resort.
I found my way to the ticket place about 15 minutes before the bus left, and thankfully was able to get the ticket and be at the bus stop in time. In the back of my mind I was wondering how easy it would be to get out of the parking spot if someone parked next to me, but on I went anyway.
The bus wound up to a high lake, Maroon Lake, at about 9,500 feet. It was a beautiful sunny day, again, and there were some lovely views. There was a recorded commentary on the bus, and the guy was talking about the “14-ers”, mountains of 14,000 feet and above, that some people climbed. He strongly recommended not to do this unless you were experienced in doing that. I had asked Shannon about the idea of climbing one of these, and she had recommended against it, since I might get altitude sickness at that height, not being used to the elevation. The announcer said there was one 14-er that was easier to climb than others, if someone had to climb one. He said even he got part way up, until he discovered how much he liked oxygen!
The bus took around 25 minutes, and I got to the lake about 12.40. It was pretty, with mountains behind, and lush vegetation, with lovely aspen trees (from which the town was named I guess), bright yellow in their autumn hues. The mountains behind were called the Maroon Bells, because they had a bit of a maroon tinge to them. They were very majestic, with a bit of snow, and the colourful aspen trees growing up the lower slopes. The water level of the lake was down quite a lot. Apparently the reflections looked amazing when the water was still, but it was a bit windy. The water was a lovely glacier colour though, and it was all very pretty.
There were quite a few people around, but I was headed yet higher, to Crater Lake, elevation 10,000 feet. I was getting more used to hiking at those altitudes. I’d found I was getting a bit dizzy sometimes when I’d been hiking then stopped for a while, but if I forcibly breathed in and out fast, I was ok. I wasn’t sure if that was just my body not being used to heights. Perhaps it was heart related, since I did discover I had a very narrowed artery not long after I got back. But thank the Lord it was manageable while I was there. I was pretty pleased to be able to do a fairly strenuous hike from 9,500 feet to 10,000.
The hike took around 45 minutes, and was absolutely stunning, worth all the stress and trouble! It wound up through what looked like a birch forest, but I’m pretty sure it was aspen, which apparently looks quite like birch. It was wonderful walking through all the yellow foliage on this beautifully sunny day, with views of the majestic peaks, and the trees growing up the lower slopes in the distance. I came out onto the lake, which didn’t have a lot of water in it, but I was closer to the peaks I’d seen in the distance. I had thought of hiking further, but I still had a lot of driving to do before reaching my final destination of Twin Lakes for the day.
I’d brought a sandwich and drink for lunch, and had them there, enjoying the sunshine and the views. After hiking back down through the beauty, and having another look around the lower lake, I joined the line for a bus back. I was able to get on the next one that came along, and get back to the resort, and to the parking lot. Thank the Lord, the space next to me was still empty, so I was able to get out easily.
On I went, through the picturesque town of Aspen, and then up towards Independence Pass, one of the highest paved roads in the state, topping out at a bit over 12,000 feet. The road ran through beautiful countryside past Aspen, and I found a spot I could stop and go in and look at the foliage and a river going by.
I stopped a few times to admire the view of the valley below, getting further away as I climbed. The top of the pass was above the tree line, and just before getting to the top, I joined a line of cars that were stopped. I got chatting with the person in the car next to me while we waited. From questioning one or two people who had walked to the top and were coming back, we found out that there had been an accident at the top, it sounded like maybe it was a car hitting a cyclist. After a while we saw a helicopter come in and airlift someone out.
We were waiting for half an hour or so, then we got to go on, and wind down the other side. I made good use of the van’s gears to save the brakes. They worked very well going down hills in a lot of places, without much need to use the brakes, just changing up or down depending on the amount of slope. It seemed to have very good engine braking abilities. If I used the brakes too much, occasionally the van would enter some kind of special mode where it would change down gears automatically whenever I put on the brakes. Maybe it detected that the brakes were getting hot. It was pretty heavy-handed, so I worked the gears myself so I got to choose when to change gears.
The grasses above the tree line were changing colour as well, and made for a beautiful landscape. I wound my way through some hairpin bends, and at about 5.30 entered the tiny but beautiful town of Twin Lakes, also with a lot of wonderful yellow autumn foliage. It’s funny that some people in North America talked disparagingly of “just yellow” colours – they seemed to like the oranges and reds better, but coming from somewhere with very little colour, yellow was just fine too!
There was a little general store, and I went in there and found some interesting looking things that I could have as a snack or for breakfast. I got some $10 notes because I wasn’t sure if I would need to pay cash for staying in the Colorado parks. That was another state that charged both for camping, and also for entering the park. I walked a little way along a small track on the other side of the road from the store, then drove a bit further to a parking lot by the lake, which was a beautiful sight with the trees, and mountains behind it. The town was at an elevation of around 9,000 feet, making it the highest place I stayed, I think.
I drove a little further to see the second of the twin lakes, down a road owned by a power station, which people could drive on. They wanted money to park there, which I was only wanting to do briefly, and I moved on to another parking spot further on, to get more views of the lake. One of the mountains in the background had some snow on it. My campsite for the evening was one I had booked on HipCamp, a free camping site with pretty much no facilities. I had tossed up camping there, rather than somewhere a bit more civilised, but I couldn’t resist the idea of free camping out in the country with no neighbours.
I found my way to the place, following the instructions given by my host. It was on a flat area with no trees or bushes to speak of, just grassland, surrounded by mountains and hills on all sides, some closer, some further away. There were quite a few houses scattered distantly around, and the dirt track went by the tiny house of my host. She had told me she was away. She hadn’t mentioned exactly where to park, but since it was free camping, I assumed I could go anywhere in the area. There was a sign saying Private Property, which I assumed was hers. I found a spot off one of the tracks that was level and looked like a parking spot for a van or caravan, maybe half a mile from her hut, and proceeded to settle in, ready to cook dinner. I was catching up on the phone with someone in Australia while I was getting organised.
Then I noticed a ute driving up towards me, and a guy came out, smoking a cigarette. He wasn’t unfriendly, and he made some comment about me being the last one or something, which I didn’t really understand. I said I was camping in Angie’s campground, and he said that her land was just by her house, and this was his land. I apologised, and he was very nice about it, and we chatted for a little, when he found out where I was from.
So I drove back and looked for somewhere near her house to park, and settled on a spot that looked like it would work. There was just a chemical toilet (not smelly like the pit ones), and no potable water. I knew that there was no water beforehand, and I had a big container of water with a spigot, that I’d filled up in Phoenix, as a backup for anywhere there wasn’t water. This was the first (and I think only) time I used it, but it came in very handy for filling my three water bottles, brushing my teeth, and cooking my porridge and tea in the morning.
It was I think around freezing, but unlike the other places where I’d been out and it was cold, there was a decent wind blowing too, which made a huge difference. Instead of just being a bit nippy, even with my big jacket, I was able to stand outside just long enough to heat up a tin, and then had to get into the van. I don’t think I’ve ever felt anything colder! It was quite an experience to sleep out by myself in the mountains like that. Once in the van I wasn’t cold, with my thermals and sleeping bag.
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