Visiting Maroon Bells in Aspen, Colorado

The Maroon Bells – Snowmass Wilderness is located in Aspen, Colorado.

There are seven trails to choose from, most of them start at, or near, the parking lot or connect to a trail that begins here.

You are surrounded by beauty the moment you step out of your car. Even the road into the park is filled with visual delights.

The trail to Maroon Lake is short and flat. It is an easy, one mile, out and back trail.

The lake is nestled in the Elk Mountains and is picture perfect! The Maroon Lake trail takes you along the northern shore of the lake.

On the scenic loop trail, an easy 1.5 mile loop, you will walk past a rushing stream, cascading waterfalls and finally loop around a beaver pond.

We had arrived at the trail around 7:45 am, so we had the trail to ourselves for the majority of time.

As you walk further along, you come to a small waterfall.

The closer you get to the pond, the faster the water seems to be rushing.

The water at the pond has a stunning turquoise hue. If you have the time, I highly recommend taking the trail.

This sign greets you at the beginning of the Maroon Snowmass Trail. We did have bear spray with us, but so far, we have never encountered a bear in Colorado. We did share a trail with three bears in Sequoia National Park, and I am happy to say, the bears could have cared less.

The Maroon Snowmass Trail, leading to Crater Lake, connects to the Scenic Loop Trail. This would be our third, and final, trail of the day.

This trail is rated moderate, due to the incline and rocky and uneven footing. It is 3.6 miles out and back.

The views are fabulous, giving you plenty of excuses to take a break and photograph the scenery.

The toughest, rockiest section is near the end.

Our final destination, Crater Lake, did not disappoint. Beautiful, peaceful, calm. . .the perfect place to relax before heading back down the 500 feet we had just hiked up.

We walked along the lakeshore, rested on some fallen logs while soaking in the scenery, then a little reluctantly, headed back down.

Things to Know Before You Go

1. Reservations are required for entrance here. You can either purchase a parking pass for $10 or make a reservation for the shuttle bus. Check here for shuttle bus prices and information. We drove in, so I don’t know all of the details involved with taking the shuttle.
2. Reservations are required from May 15th – October 31st. The road to the park closes yearly, usually in mid-November, depending on snowfall. 
3. Parking reservations are released on a rolling schedule, check here for information. They go fast, so plan accordingly.
4. Parking has different time slots: day, evening, 24 hour and overnight. For day slots (which we did), you must arrive before 8 am and depart before 4:30 pm.
5. There are bears in the area, especially if you go beyond Maroon Lake. Bring bear spray as a precaution.
6. There are bathrooms located in the parking lot.
7. There are a variety of trails here rated from easy to hard.

From start to finish, we were here for approximately 5 1/2 hours. We did three trails and spent some time at each location soaking in the view. All of us loved this park and would definitely return. We then headed to Glenwood Hot Springs Lodge to soak in the hot springs and recover from our day of hiking in the mountains. (We also spent the night here.) We would have loved to do the Hanging Lakes Trail near Glenwood, but the trail was still undergoing repairs from rain storms/debris flows. The trail is currently open but does require reservations. We then moved on to Utah, with our first stop being Arches National Park. As always, wishing you happy travels and fantastic adventures in this thing called life.

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