Made the summit!

It started when Jude was eight. Now, he is 19, and we are still going strong. Every summer, Jude and I hike to the top of one of the 14,000-foot mountains in Colorado. This year we decided on La Plata Peak.

La Plata is about 120 miles from Denver, near Twin Lakes just outside of Leadville. The La Plata trailhead has a really small parking lot, so we decided to drive up Saturday afternoon and sleep in the car that night.

It was a gorgeous morning on the mountain

We were up bright and early and on the trail at 5:30am, when it was barely light. We didn’t see the sun until we were on the ridge, 1.5 miles from the summit. Those last 1.5 miles were tough, particularly on the downhill as it was steep and you were scrambling over rocks.

We made it to the top just before 9:30am where we enjoyed a well deserved break and some snacks. The downhill was probably the second toughest Jude and I have done, mainly because it was so steep, which made it slippery.

We made it back to the car by 1:15pm, tired but exhilarated after a very challenging hike.

Getting ready for Noah Kahan

Meanwhile, last weekend Marcy and Anna went to see Noah Kahan at Coors Field in Denver. They both absolutely loved the show.

Setting out from the Maroon Bells trailhead on Saturday morning

Marcy and I just had a fantastic weekend hiking in the Colorado mountains. We did the famous Aspen to Crested Butte hike on Saturday and then back on Sunday.

Looking back down the valley from near West Maroon Pass

This hike had been on our bucket list for many years, as many people say it is the best hike in Colorado. It didn’t disappoint.

We drove to Aspen on Friday, staying at the Limelight Hotel in Snowmass (thank you Chase points). Because the Maroon Bells are so popular today, you can’t drive there and park your car overnight, there is a shuttle from Aspen Highlands that takes you there. We were up bright and early and on the West Maroon Pass trail around 8:40am.

The wildflowers on the Crested Butte side were nothing short of spectacular

We had a deadline because I booked the 2pm Shuttle from the Crested Butte trailhead so we knew we had to move quickly to make the 11-mile journey (with 3,000+ feet of elevation gain) in 5 hours. We were both feeling strong and made the 7-mile journey to West Maroon Pass by noon. A quick lunch and it was all downhill to the Crested Butte Trailhead.

Marcy among the fireweed

Once we got below treeline on the Crested Butte side, the wildflowers were amazing, particularly the pink-purple fireweed, which dominated many of the hillsides.

We made it to the Crested Butte trailhead with time to spare, completing the hike in just under five hours. Then it was a shuttle to our The Lodge at Mountaineer Square, along a narrow road that hugged the mountain – it was harrowing at times. That night we got the free bus to the town where there was an art show. So, we caught some of that and then had a delicious sushi dinner.

At West Maroon Pass on Sunday at 12,500 feet

We were back on the trail by 9am on Sunday and it was good we had no deadline as I was not feeling as strong as day one. Marcy is a machine with a backpack on so she was ahead of me for a good chunk of the day. And then on the long downhill towards Aspen, my feet started bothering me, so I was even slower. We made it by 3pm, an hour longer than Saturday.

Our ending photo, happy to be done

We both commented that it was so nice to stay in a hotel instead of a tent, which is what we typically do on our hiking trips. We will continue to do backpacking, but we might intersperse those trips with something a little more comfortable. The Aspen to Crested Butte hike lived up to the billing and it fully deserves its 4.9 stars on AllTrails.