Maroon Bells & Family

The first week of August my brother and his wife came from DC to visit us. It was great and they were fun guests - they were up for anything and everything. So we dragged them to as much of the state as we could in our limited time together. The wildlife wasn't shy during their visit and so they saw six moose, one bear, probably a dozen or so deer and, I'm guessing, over fifty elk. We took them over Independence Pass where they climbed a barren ridge line that was close to 13,000 feet high - affording them incredible mountain views in every direction. We hike the always breathtaking Sky Pond hike in Rocky Mountain National Park (10 miles) with them and then we gallivanted around the rest of Rocky Mountain National Park. We played in Fraser valley and then convinced them to ride the Alpine Slides at Winter Park with us. It's the longest slide in the state: just over 3,000 feet long with a vertical drop of 610 feet. We explored Aspen and then ventured into the Maroon Bells Snowmass Wilderness. Neither Mr X nor I have managed to play in that area yet. I've been wanting to go see the Maroon Bells since we moved to Colorado but hadn't until now. It did not disappoint. Here are some photos:

My brother wanted to hike through an Aspen grove at some point during his visit. I was happy to accommodate his request. :-)