An interesting weekend for us. We took the Jeeps out and without having a real plan in place (the beauty of having the roof top tent and being able to stay where ever) and we headed towards Aspen. We wanted to go see the Maroon Bells, but that was a circus...buses and people, and paid parking, and crowds...we decided to roll on. I still had no idea where we were going so I pulled out my trusty Colorado Jeep Trails book and found something nearby. We cruised up a colorful canyon with a thousand bicycles on a road with no shoulder...gotta love CO!
I found our turn off, Little Annie Road and we started creeping up the hill. I missed a turn somewhere and somehow we ended up at the top of the Gondola on Aspen Mountain. They had activities for the kids and a good restroom break so it was a neat stop. From there, we headed up the hill and followed a mountain ridge for hours and hours. At about 3:30 in the afternoon, we came across Taylor Lake and knew this was our stop for the night. This little lake hovered at around 12,000 feet, so I knew we were in for a cold night. But it was a beautiful site!
And yeah, it was a cold night. Woke up with frosted Jeeps!
We woke up to make some Hot Cocoa and saw a guy bouncing along in an orange 2 door JK along the outside of the lake. As he got closer, I saw he didn't have any doors on his Jeep and thought that must have been a cold ride. He then turned off and came towards our camp. At first I was thinking he was a Forest Ranger making sure we didn't have a fire. Then he introduced himself and said he recently moved to CO a few weeks prior and was looking for directions back to the main road. I asked if he had a nice tent and he said..."no, I just sleep in the back of the Jeep." "in a 2 door...without doors?" I asked. He smiled and said "Yeah, I just hop up on that platform and last night was a cold one!" That is one of the more fun things about the Jeep scene! Strangers in the wilderness sharing Jeep adventures.
Thankfully, we were able to get down narrow shelf trail built in thick pines before anyone started heading up the hill. I also did this descent with a slight migraine headache and spots in my vision. Something I never want to attempt ever again! We can't wait to head to Moab this fall for a few overnights as well! If we can survive 12,000 feet in September above Aspen, we should be able to survive 4500 feet up to November in Moab.
