Four Pass loop, Aspen Colorado
A never forget journey over four 12,500’ alpine passes around the Maroon bells.
Looking for more of a challenge for your weekend? Backpacking is something I fell in love with while trekking in Patagonia. I always have been a huge fan of camping and sometimes even hiked a short ways to my campsites but I wanted to do more and get into the back country for a few days.
Just Look at them! SO BEAUTIFUL.
Let me give you some quick facts before I go through my trip back there!
29.1 Mile loop
7,870 ft elevation gain
4 major passes
Shuttle service to trail head $15.95 per person
Trail head parking is available before 8 am but very limited $30 a day
*due to Covid parking and shuttle services may change
Takes 3-5 days (this blog post is me doing it in 3 days)
You’ll stay above 9,500 Ft and get up to 12,500 Ft on your passes.
Back country permits are free at trail head
(Taken from www.katerunscolorado.com)
My friend Aly and I had come here earlier in the summer to just look at the mountains and enjoy Aspen. But when we got here I immediately said we should backpack in those mountains.
To start this hike we read all the reviews and tips about doing it and decided counterclockwise was best. Buckskin pass will be on your first day and if you start early you’ll have smooth sailing. It is no joke of a pass but you’ll be grateful you got it out of the way.
We went over at least 3 big patches of snow covered areas. Not enough to need to bring spikes but something to think about, we did this hike mid August and there was still quite a bit of snow.
Behind us as we went over buckskin. We came from down in that valley! You’ll hit this pass about 4 miles in. You start gaining elevation almost as soon as you start on your trail. The elevation gain to this pass is 2,916 ft according to All Trails. Took us almost 3 hours of hard work to get up here.
After an exhausting day we slept at Snowmass Lake. Right below our second pass that we saved for the next morning.
If you aren’t sure how to pack for a trip like this I made a post just for you! check out my backpacking gear list.
Plan to get here as early as possible, the trial to this lake is hard and challenging but I could sit on this shoreline for hours! It took about 5-6 hours and about 8 miles to get here.
Had some fellow campers near us but not too many to feel crowded. The next morning we took off with another quick gain of elevation to get over Trail Rider Pass.
Looking over Snowmass lake.
The incline up Trail Rider Pass.
Trail Rider Pass
On the other side of this pass is straight beauty. Since we got the pass done with early the rest of the day was mostly down hill into the beautiful valley.
You can always find me drinking from streams. Yes we use iodine tablets or a filter system to be safe.
Our second campsite came quicker and was so beautiful. We had most of the area to ourselves and had a beautiful waterfall and stream to hangout near.
There was no fire ban in this area that year so we took full advantage and enjoyed the warmth. Was of course very careful and submerged it at the end of the night.
The third and final day was the toughest. We saved two passes, Frigid Air pass and West Maroon pass for our last day and I woke up to a surprise.
Something unexpected always happens on backpack trips and this was no exception. I had my backpack in the entrance to the tent but not actually in the tent with us. Woke up to most of my straps being chewed through and some clips being unusable. This is why we bring rope and duct tape my friends.
After a wild morning of figuring how I was going to carry a heavy pack without my straps we headed out on our final 12 mile day.
I’ll never get over the views of this backpacking trip
We got over our first pass that day and it came steep and quickly. The final pass wasn’t that big of an incline since we didn’t drop too far into the valley after the third.
Remember to bring hats for the constant exposure and warm clothes! Even in August the passes were very chilly and being so high in elevation, even at night we bundled up.
We thought we were smooth sailing after we headed down from the final pass. Until we came upon a huge avalanche area. This is something you can’t always prepare for. From all the reviews we didn’t hear about any extremely impacted areas other than what they said were a few small ones.
This added at least an unnecessary hour or two to our hike because unlike this photo shows, 90% of this thick forested avalanche area had been completely covered with out signs of a path. So after climbing over trees that laid on top of each other for almost an hour we realized we were no where near the path and we only had 2-3 hours of sunlight left. We knew the path ended at a lake and that eventually there was a stream we needed to cross. So we headed through the thicket down into the valley and followed the stream
And yes we absolutely took the map and said I am not sure where we are exactly, but according to this we should cross the river below this saddle in the mountain. So we followed our gut and as we got to the stream we found three fellow hikers that said they had lost the trail and decided to do the same thing.
My final tip would be to go mid August- mid September. The abundance of flowers up here was amazing.
