When it’s time to escape the summer heat in Texas, we often flee to Colorado since it’s an easy, non-stop flight for us from Austin. With the long weekend for Memorial Day, we did just that. We flew into Denver on Wednesday night (delayed, of course). When we arrived at the rental car shuttle bus, we were informed that the rental car company had overbooked, and they would not honor our last-minute reservation. Thankfully, we were still able to find a car with another company that didn’t break the bank; otherwise, this could have been a big problem. Off we went into the mountains, even if we arrived in Georgetown later than expected that night.
Kurt worked remotely from the hotel on Thursday with a quick lunch break at the brewery next door.
Then, we enjoyed a late afternoon run around Georgetown Lake (1.45 miles around) before the typical afternoon mountain storms rolled in. The elevation of around 8,500 feet was challenging for us flatlanders, but the cooler temps and beautiful views offset the lack of oxygen!
As it turns out, finding a ski rental company in late May is quite difficult. Most of the local businesses have already shifted to renting bicycles for the summer. Thankfully, Kurt came across Blue Valley Ski in Silverthorne, so we drove over there in the early evening to pick up our equipment for the next day. Then, we grabbed dinner at nearby Bluebird Market, a food hall with a variety of food and drink options.
We set out early for Arapahoe Basin on Friday morning (the only ski resort in Colorado still open at this late date), as Kurt always wants to maximize his time on the slopes. Given that we were coming from Georgetown, we were able to make the relatively short drive over Loveland Pass to get to the resort. Clear roads made the journey quick and easy, so we arrived early and we were rewarded with front row parking that was super convenient to the base.
After picking up our pre-paid lift tickets, we had to wait for about an hour before the lifts opened at 9am. Given the mountain conditions this late in the season, only two lifts were open. I stayed on the lower slopes while Kurt took the mid-slope lift to the upper slopes. The steepness of the runs increased to the skier’s left. Needless to say, I stayed to the right.
Even though the snow conditions weren’t great (very icy in some spots that caused our skis to chatter and very slushy in other spots that you just glided though and then barren in some locations with natural hazards emerging from below the thinning snow), Kurt appreciated the bonus day of skiing for the year. And, I appreciated the lower prices for lift tickets at this time of year, so I didn’t mind going out for a few runs. Our day on the mountain was cut short though when lightning and blizzard conditions blew through around lunchtime. We had lunch at the base to wait and see if they would reopen the mountain, which they eventually did a couple of hours later. Kurt went up for another couple of runs, but then he called it due to deteriorating snow conditions.
So, we got an earlier afternoon start than expected for our drive to Aspen. The drive wasn’t without incident though, as Kurt was pulled over for speeding in Dillon (he got off with just a warning, thankfully) and an accident on the highway caused a significant delay. I told Kurt that once we arrived at our hotel then he didn’t have to get back into the car until our departure on Monday. We checked into our hotel in Aspen then grabbed burgers across the street for dinner. The hotel was quite the find, perfectly located downtown with ample rooms in a European-chalet setting at a bargain rate for the area.
We were having a lazy Saturday morning in our room when we received a call that our planned rafting trip for later that day had been canceled because we were the only participants signed up. Thankfully, we were able to rebook the trip for the following afternoon. Suddenly, our day was freed up, so we scrambled to get ready for a hike up to the summit of Aspen Mountain (11,212 feet). After getting some local intel about the conditions on the Ute Trail up the mountain, we were advised to head up via Summer Road instead. Aspen Mountain Summer Road (County Road 14), also called Aspen Mountain Trail, is an intermediate/moderate dirt road that you can hike, run, and mountain bike in the summer. While most people were headed up to the summit via the Silver Queen Gondola, we were making our way up on foot with the goal of having lunch at the top. While the trail surface was not technical at all, it proved to be quite steep and longer than we anticipated (approximately 4.6 miles with 3,300 feet elevation gain). The altitude turned this into a much more challenging hike than we were expecting, especially with Melissa’s tendency to sweat combined with strong winds giving her hands some mild frostbite (Yes, frostbite on a warm, sunny, summer day). Thankfully, we arrived at the restaurant at the top with 10-15 minutes to spare before the grill closed for lunch at 3pm. Now, THAT would have been a disaster if we missed lunch after what we had just endured!
It turns out that while you have to pay to ride the gondola up the mountain, it’s free to ride it DOWN the mountain (my favorite kind of descent!). So, we enjoyed the views as we headed back toward town, grateful that we had survived another adventure.
It’s no secret that everything in Aspen is pricey. We opted to pick up some bread, meat, cheese, and fruit from the local grocery store so that we could have a cheaper European-style dinner on our balcony (which faced the St. Regis Hotel).
With our rafting trip pushed to Sunday afternoon, Sunday turned into a double-adventure kind of day. We started the day with a hike at Maroon Bells, which is accessible primarily via shuttle from Aspen Highlands (advance reservations recommended). We had originally planned to take advantage of the free 30-minute bike rental system to get to Aspen Highlands from our hotel, but we lucked out with the free city bus operating (which we weren’t expecting at that early hour on a Sunday based on the schedule). Since we got there earlier than planned, we were able to go stand-by on the 8am shuttle rather than wait for the 8:45am shuttle that we had reserved. The bus dropped us off right at Maroon Lake, which offers beautiful views of the Maroon Bells. I didn’t even have to work to get this view!
But, of course, that wasn’t enough of an activity for us. So, we hiked from Maroon Lake to Crater Lake (3.5 miles total). Having researched the recent trail conditions before we left Austin, we weren’t surprised to find that half of the trail was covered in snow. So, we arrived prepared with our Kahtoola microspikes, excited to take them on their maiden journey. And, we quickly learned that “Spikes are magic!,” as Kurt declared. They made hiking the snowy, hilly terrain a breeze. We were rewarded for our efforts with closer views of the Maroon Bells and the glacial valley.
Upon return to Aspen, we had just enough time to grab lunch and switch out our hiking gear for our rafting gear to get ready for the next adventure: Rafting Slaughterhouse Falls on the Roaring Fork River. This was our first time back on the river since we swam in the Zambezi last Fall. A solid Class IV experience was just enough to find the joy rather than fear in rafting again. After sizing up the other occupants in our boat, I volunteered to take the front…which meant that I could see everything coming at us and that I’d take a lot of the big hits from the water. The water was a chilly 39 degrees fed from the mountain snow melt, but we were layered up nicely in a fleece, wetsuit, and splash jacket so it didn’t feel too bad at all. Since the rapids started fast and furious with aptly named Entrance Exam and Slaughterhouse Falls (a 6-foot drop) immediately after our put-in, we had our “practice paddle” in the boat on land after our safety briefing.
We topped off a fun day of adventure with dinner at Aspen Brewing Company. Pizza and drinks are always the best way to wrap up a great trip.
With a late night flight home from Denver on Monday, we weren’t in any big rush that day (until we were….). We took one last short stroll around Aspen, and I marveled to Kurt how nice it was to be outside and not be sweating. Then, we took the scenic route on Independence Pass over the Continental Divide between Aspen and Leadville with a summit of 12,095 ft. The pass had just re-opened over the weekend after the winter closure. It was a beautiful drive, and we couldn’t believe that there were skiers hiking up the mountains at the summit. That’s one way to get some last runs in for the season!
Then, it was back to the airport for our late night flight home. Unfortunately, the TSA PreCheck security point was closed at that hour, so we had to endure a long line through security…and, had to run to the gate to catch our flight as they were calling our names as the last passengers waiting to board. And, that’s why I wear running shoes to the airport!