Summer Vacation - Colorado & Utah

Leadville & Mt. Elbert

Leadville is an old mining town located between some of the most glamorous ski resorts in the world - Vail, Aspen, Breckenridge etc. It doesn't quite conform to it's lovely neighbors pretentiousness, and for the most part it's pretty run down, which is likely a carry-over from the mining days. The main things it's got going for itself is the downtown area which has been restored and is quite nice, it's the highest incorporated city in North America at 10,430', and it's known for it's extreme sports like the Leadville 100 mountain bike and running races. So for some people like us, sleeping there is sort of a right of passage. That, and it's the closest town to the Mt. Elbert trailhead.

After we checked into our hotel (so much for camping!), we took a little stroll downtown and ate dinner at an Italian place. It was nice, but not quite 4 stars. We went back to our hotel to get ready for the big hike up Mt. Elbert in the morning. Note that the firewood is definitely enjoying it's trip.

Mt. Elbert is the highest mountain in Colorado at 14,443', and the second only to Mt. Whitney in the U.S. It's not a particularly exciting mountain, and there's nothing too difficult about climbing it either, but since it's the tallest, we had to do it. Based on our previous mountain climbing experience we figured we needed about 8-9 hours to do this hike (that's also what the book said). We also needed to be off the top by 1pm to avoid any nasty thunderstorms which are pretty much guaranteed every afternoon this time of year on a 12,000'+ peak. So we decided we had to be on the trail by 7am.

We got on the trail at 8am. The hike is below treeline for the first hour or so, then you pop out above the trees and really start sweating. We must have been pretty worried about making it back down in time, because we made it to the top in 3 hours. Let's just say that no one passed us.

At the top, the views were awe-inspiring. The whole way around all you could see were the tops of other mountains. And some lakes. Oh, and the 50 other people who were also lunching, lounging, and being inspired.

We ate lunch, signed the register, took everyone else's picture for them, and then started back down. Now, you would think the going down would be a LOT faster than the going up, but because of the loose gravel and rocks, it was actually more dangerous and took almost as long (only 15min. less). We saw a yellow-bellied marmot on the way down, and he was very fat. He ran over to a big rock and flattened himself against it trying to make himself look smaller and hide, but he still looked fat.

Just as we got back down to the parking lot it starting pouring rain. Not a little rain, I mean buckets of rain. We felt our timing was very lucky and I wondered about all those other people still coming down, some of them in jeans and cotton t-shirts. I bet they were miserable.

We made our way into Aspen via Independence Pass, where the storm was probably more like what was going on towards the top of Mt. Elbert - it was seriously hailing (those poor hikers). Aspen was pretty cool. We ate lunch at Aspen's oldest pub, The Red Onion. We sat right by the front window and watched the same storm roll down the valley into town. The street just outside our window actually turned into a canal for a while. We got a good laugh at all the tourists running trying to get out of the rain.

We finally left Aspen and made our way to Glenwood Springs where we were going to camp for the night. But at the last minute decided to stay at the historic Hotel Colorado. The firewood is very snug in the trunk of the car.