My roommate John and I spent a weekend in early autumn 2001 at the Maroon Bells, which are, like, the Colorado Mountains®. Probably the most often-shot picture in Colorado is of the Maroon Bells over Crater Lake. It’s even on our local grocery store cards . Here’s my attempt at that shot:

We went during one of the weekends when the aspens were changing; they are bright gold for only a couple weeks in the autumn every year. I had just missed them last year so I really wanted to see them. We got there at just the right time:

John is the über-athlete, so I didn’t even consider going on the same trail he did. He climbed Pyramid mountain, a fourteener, but I did Buckskin Pass, which only goes up to about 12,500 feet. I took most of my pictures towards the beginning and end of the trail, because most of the time I was just huffing and puffing... Here’s a creek just above tree-line:

Here are some pictures right up near the top of the trail:

And here’s the view from the top, from left to right. The middle picture shows the view of Snowmass Lake across the valley, but it’s a little hard to make out. It’s in the middle, in the spot of sunlight.

And then right back down again... I couldn’t use my legs again for days...

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created January 19, 2002
last modified March 23, 2003
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