To get here, you'll need to go to the town of Aspen and drive up the Maroon Creek Road. It is unclear from some of the websites that I visited before going - but here is my advice for getting to the trailhead. If you drive up Maroon Creek road before 5:30 PM, the ranger at the guard hut will turn you away and tell you that you need to park in the shuttle parking lot (10 miles back) and take the shuttle bus to the Trailhead. You will need then make sure to end your hike before 5:00 PM in order to take the shuttle back to your car. So my advice is to go up the road after 5:30 PM (when rangers are gone) and start your hike. Or you can beg the ranger to let you go on up ... that is what we did, telling her we didn't know if we'd make it back for the shuttle ... she told us to park at the lower parking lot, which only had a few other cars at it.
You don't need a permit to hike this loop, but you will need to sign in at a register on the trail.
Also, bring a bear canister for your food or the rangers will turn you away. The weekend we were here some bears broke into a food cache hung improperly by Crater Lake. So now rangers are requiring bear canisters.
This is a beautiful hike and also very popular. We hiked with many of the same people each day. We hiked clockwise, starting by Crater Lake. We spend 3 nights out. I'm going to warn you -- going over Trail Rider Pass is the hardest part of the hike! We had a really cold night in the Fravert Basin. In the morning we saw frost on the flowers and plants. We filtered our water but noticed some people drinking it without filtering. I err on the side of caution in an area that gets so many visitors. There are many marked campsites. I did not see campsites between West Maroon Pass and Frigid Air - we did both those passes on the 2nd day of hiking. We had beautiful weather but be prepared for rain. A friend of ours did this hike a week before us and said that it rained every day! The wildflowers were plentiful and stunning - I've never seen better!
Map used: National Geographic Maroon Bells, Redstone, Marble Trails Illustrated Topographic Map
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| Fravert Basin |
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| Wildflowers in Fravert Basin |
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| Meadow below Trail Rider Pass |
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| Snowmass Lake |
2 comments:
Drive up to Maroon lake before 8:00 AM and you won't see a ranger at the entrance. Few cars at parking areas. Hit the trail to West Maroon Pass at first light and you will probably have the trail to yourself. I prefer the first leg over Buckskin to Snowmass. ALWAYS purify.
Happy Trails, Joe
Thanks for taking the time to discuss that, I feel strongly about this and so really like getting to know more on this kind of field. Do you mind updating your blog post with additional insight? It should be really useful for all of us. day bags
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