Rifle Gap State Park...September 6 - Day 11

(Kim's Perspective)

This morning we woke up and hit the road at 7:30.  Prior to the trip, I spent countless hours researching cool places to visit in Colorado.  The "99 Gorgeous Places In Colorado" was an awesome site and extremely beneficial to my trip planning.  For the record....I only say "my trip planning" because no one else offered up any suggestions.  Naturally, if no one steps up, I am happy to take the lead and make all the decisions.  You can call that whatever you like, but when it comes to vacation planning, it generally works out pretty well and my "finds" never disappoint.  Well, they never disappoint Bill - the Sitts might be another story.  HA! 

With so many amazing places to see, I had to narrow down the list drastically, but Aspen was a keeper so I spent some additional time researching cool things to do in Aspen.  The three things that made the list were:
1) Saturday Farmer's Market (How handy...we're here on a Saturday.  Coincidence or kickin' awesome planning?  You decide).  :)

2) Independence Pass 

3) Maroon Bells

So...while not exactly close by, Rifle Gap is the closest Colorado State Park (with adequate camping) to Aspen, so we were just going to have to make a day trip of it.  And day trip we did.  We weren't sure exactly where the farmer's market was so we stopped by the visitor center to get some info.  Fail.  Visitor's apparently are only allowed to come to Aspen Monday - Friday from 8:30 to 5:00.  For the record, I later learned that there are other visitor centers in Aspen that are open on Saturdays.  You'd think they'd post a sign about that.  Anyway...we figured we'd have difficulty finding street parking for two large trucks, so we utilized the public parking garage attached to the useless, I mean, closed visitor center.  We walked a few blocks looking for the market and popped into a questionable gas station to use the restroom.  Feeling obligated to buy something since the four of us were standing in line like little kids waiting to pee, we picked up two Kind bars for a mere $5.44.  Ugh.  Rip off.  While we were waiting for each other to take their personal moment, we chatted with two guys who were in town for the Tough Mudder.  Hats off to ya' mates.  Have fun.  I'm going to go get a breakfast pastry or something.  :)

The farmer's market was slightly disappointing.  It's Aspen...I figured it would be bigger or something.  It was large, don't get me wrong, but we've been to many farmer's markets and, aside from the astronomical, snobby Aspen prices, it really wasn't much different.  If you ever want to go to a kick butt market, go to Portland or Seattle. 

We did two loops to see what we wanted to grab for breakfast (a peach cobbler pastry for me and a jalapeno and cheese stuffed pretzel for Bill) and then popped in a couple REI-type stores.  Bill had forgotten his hat so he purchased a new one at said REI-type store while Shele bought some new boots.  Remember how they each bought new boots in Wall?  Yeah...these two are trouble.  :)

As we were walking towards the parking garage we chuckled as we passed by a few of the local shops. 

The Green Dragon Pot House, I mean, Cannabis Company had a shop tucked back in a corner.

This was a cool outdoor dining area.

Despite the pot shop, downtown Aspen is pretty nice.  Even the library is cute.

We walked back to the parking garage and drove through town to continue south on 82.  Next activity....driving Independence Pass (high mountain pass section of route 82).  We weren't sure exactly where the Pass started, so we drove in separate vehicles for awhile. 

Mr. Sitt is not a huge fan of driving on mountain passes, so after a short time, he radioed to us with a suggestion that we all ride together.  :)  Bill, on the other hand, pretty much enjoys driving all the time, so we figured we would just drive our truck (which he'd be more comfortable driving on the narrow, winding road).  We found a small parking area at a trailhead and rearranged our gear a bit and crammed poor Bill and Shele in the back seat.  Sorry guys...we just weren't thinking about the massive pile of crap we had in the truck.  :)

So, after a few moments of getting situated, we continued on.  At this point, the road was narrow and twisty and surrounded by forest. 

All of a sudden, it started to open up and give us some views into the valleys. 

Bill started to drive past the Independence Ghost Town.  "Wait!  Let's check that out!"  He obliged...and so did the Sitts...and soon we were enjoying ourselves as we took a walk back through time.

These are portals to other realms.  Or...actually, just pretty neat photos I took.  :)

Is that a ghost in the top left corner?  Oh...nope...just sun glare.  LOL

We spent longer than I anticipated here, but it was bright and sunny and Shele was enjoying taking pics as much as I was.

There were spectacular backdrops for a staged portrait....

But Bill wanted to photo bomb it.  :)

I'm not sure why, but this absolutely cracks me up.

We wrapped up our tour of the ghost town and then continued the climb to the top. 

 It was pretty spectacular to be surrounded by all those 14,000 foot tall peaks. 

Zoom, Zoom, Zoom. :)

Trying to be "shorter" than Bill in all these pics kills my back.  :D

After a quick potty break, we headed down the other side of the pass towards Twin Lakes.  We were in desperate need of gas and our choices were slim.  Go to Twin Lakes and get gas at a general store, or run out of gas before getting back to Aspen.  Twin Lakes it is.

Bill and Shele, ice cream addicts that they are, got some soft serve while Bill and I ate weirdly flavored pretzels we grabbed from the camper.  I think I stored them in the same tub as my vanilla chai tea.  :(  Blech.

On the way back, it started to rain a bit so we pulled over and piled all of our gear in the backseat....with Bill and Shele.  Fortunately, Shele is a petite little thing and doesn't take up much room.  She has a heart of gold so would have probably ridden in the bed of the truck just to keep our stuff dry had we asked her.  :)  Bill would have just told us where to stick it.  Heeeeeheeeeeheeee.

We made it back to the parking lot around 3 or so and went our separate ways.  The Sitts were going to head back "home" but we still had some exploring to do.  There was a dirt road right at the parking area that headed back to a national forest campground.  Wooohooo, let's check it out!  We love doing this - you never know when you may find the perfect camping spot for the next trip.  :)

We drove back a rough, narrow road...

...told you it was narrow... and made our way around the very small campground.  A guy walking his dog in the rain said we should get out and walk to a little nearby waterfall.  Ummm....okay.  A little rain never killed anybody. 

I wasn't overly impressed given the multitude of waterfalls I've seen on our travels, but it was nice to walk around in the rain a bit. 

We drove back towards Aspen and headed to Maroon Lake to go see the lovely Bells.  My research led me astray.  What?!?!  Something on the internet was wrong?  <GASP>  The road that leads to the Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness Area is closed to vehicular traffic from 9-5pm and only shuttle buses are allowed to travel the road during these hours.  The INTERNET said vehicle restrictions ended on Labor Day.  This is where the wrong came in.  So...we got to the gate and had to turn around.  We parked at a pulloff and tried to take a little catnap in the truck for the 25 minutes we had to wait before we'd be allowed through the gate.  The park employee said he'd let us in at 4:45, so after our nap fail, we once again flashed our Annual Park Pass and headed to the most photographed mountain peaks in North America.  :)

We parked the truck and used the restroom before tossing on our packs and heading to the trailhead.  It only took a few minutes and then.....ummm....wow....that's kind of spectacular.

We started around the lake and quickly spotted a large moose by the water's edge. 

 

We watched him for a long time and then, as we continued around the lake trail, we came across the trail closure sign for Crater Lake, our intended hike.

Bummer.  There was a lot of bear activity in the area so they closed the trail to hikers for the day.  Good thing we didn’t have to pay the ten dollars to get into the park.  So, rather than going on a hike, we hung out on the lake trail and watched the moose.  I also took the opportunity to take a lot of photos.

Look closely for real moose in background.  :)

I was somewhat surprised when the bear hunters came through.  I'm not sure how that works exactly, but the park personnel were encouraging this guy (and who I presume were his two sons) to go bag a bear.  I guess there's some annual limit or something that allows it, but it was still weird to see in a "protected" wilderness area.

We continued to watch the moose and then things got really interesting when this moron entered the picture....literally.

It took about 30 minutes before two more morons joined him.

These guys should definitely be nominated for the Darwinian Award.

We eventually grew weary of watching the stupidity of others and turned around and headed back the trail towards the truck.  It took some time...I had lots of photos to take along the way.

Sunlight...

....and fading sunlight changes the scene drastically.

I captured a photo of the elusive Maroon Bells Were-Rabbit

Coolest Restrooms Ever!

I want our driveway to look like this.

In the parking lot, we watched an older gentleman open his hatchback and pull out a folding ramp for his elderly dog.  We both lost it.  Bad.  We pulled ourselves together and I took this photo in honor of our Boys.  :'(

Heading out of the park, we saw another moose resting in the meadow.  I LOVE IT HERE!!!!!

It was 7:30 and we realized that, aside from some vanilla flavored pretzels and other assorted road trip junk food, we hadn't actually eaten since breakfast (which, as you remember, was nothing more than sugary dough).  Needless to say, we were famished.  I suggested stopping at the Whole Foods we passed outside of Carbondale.  Yeah!!  A happy grocery place.  Mmmmm....natural and organic....I've missed you!

Even the Whole Foods is better in Colorado.  Man...the East Coast sucks.

We picked up a few things (mmmm.....Root Beer Milk) and then grabbed some "pizza by the pound".  Huh?  How much pizza do you get when you buy it by the pound?  Apparently, this much. 

It was quite tasty.  We ate in the truck and then headed the hour plus back to our home on wheels.  We arrived at the campground at 9:30.  We were in no rush to get back since the Sitts had warned us via text of the passel of loud, obnoxious children running rampant through the campground.  We stayed up for a little while and I worked on the blog a bit.  Around 10:30, we headed to bed and were both looking forward to sleeping in for the first time since we departed the compound.