Morgan Marshall

We headed out for our next adventure early on a Wednesday morning, after staying up way too late the night before trying to fit everything into our bear canister. (If I’m honest, one of the hardest parts of this whole trip was figuring out the logistics of passes and transportation. We had to get our bus pass early in the year, but we still had to figure out parking and transportation to the actual bus location at Maroon Bells. It felt like a lot for such a popular hike.)

Anyways, we made it to the Maroon Bells bus location with extra time to sit and rest before our 4-day, 3-night adventure truly took off. The bus ride itself felt like Disney World as the overhead speakers gave us background information on the mountains, animals, waterfalls, and rocks in the area. When we stepped off the bus our jaws dropped. We hadn’t even started our trek into the mountains and we were already stunned by the majesty of the mountains.

The first day was full of a lot of stops as we took pictures about every ten steps. We just didn’t want to miss anything and it was all so insanely beautiful! We hiked from the trailhead to Crater Lake and began our clockwise (CW) adventure around the famous Four Pass Loop.

(A note on direction: Everyone says that their direction — clockwise or counter– is the best…but our CW direction was definitely the best! We still aren’t sure how people did it the other way without dying, but again, I bet the CCW folks say the same about us. I still think we are right.) … 🙂

Our goal on the first day was to get as close to the first pass as possible without crossing. We knew the next day had 2 passes, so we wanted to get up a little bit into the elevation and a little further in the miles before setting up camp.

Once we hit the right miles and elevation, we started looking for a campsite and the one we found was actually perfect!! It was one of the best campsites I think we have ever stayed at. The views were unreal in every direction and we didn’t have other hikers near us at all. (Though we did have 1 or 2 deer friends who got insanely close every time we stopped watching them.)

Day one was complete, so we repacked our bear canister (seriously so hard to do on the first night…plus Parker and Hannah had a pickle situation that was kinda a nightmare…but also hilarious!!) and headed to bed. At about 1am we woke up and got to look at the stars. The moon was pretty small that night and the sky was completely clear. We could see the Milky Way cross the sky along with hundreds of thousands of stars. It was absolutely beautiful.

The next morning we woke up, ate some breakfast, packed up the tent and gear, and headed out for our 2-pass-and-lots-of-miles day. We made it to the top of the first pass in under an hour!

Then we began the descent through the valley and up the next pass. This was an incredible section that a lot of people do in a day. There is a trail that goes from Crested Butte to Aspen that is about 11 miles and you go over West Maroon Pass along the way. We met a lot of people doing that 11-mile trek and could follow most of the trail as it headed down the valley and into Crested Butte. But our trail eventually turned right and we headed up Frigid Air Pass, making it to the top in great time!

We headed down the pass shortly after and knew we had a lot more miles to go before we could set up camp. Our goal was to descend and get as close to the next pass as we could. The trek down was beautiful. We went through insane fields of wildflowers that absolutely blew our minds. Who knew so many different kinds and colors of wildflowers could grow in one field?! We stopped a dozen or more times to take pictures of the flowers, and this was definitely the highlight of the day. We also passed an incredible waterfall that was so tall and so loud!

We found our campsite towards the base of the next pass, right before the incline started. This site had its pros and cons for sure. One of the biggest cons was the mosquitoes and flies. They were everywhere, but they died down once the sun went down and didn’t return in the morning. The best part about the site though was the moose! There was a female (or maybe a young male) moose that hung out in the marsh right by our site that night and the next morning. It was so fun to watch it from a distance and continue to look for it in the trees and shrubs. We also had a great water-filling river on this night, including a spot to wash some of our clothes. We took full advantage of being near a river and enjoyed some good downtime after our long day.

The next day, we headed up the third pass, Trail Rider. We heard that this one was not going to be super fun, but we also knew that we were the freshest in the morning and it was the coolest time of day. We were eager to get to the top and get over the pass so we could spend time at the famous Snowmass Lake. We made it to the top of the pass in good time, though this pass was probably the hardest one for everyone in our group. Once at the top of the pass, you get an incredible view of Snowmass… and the view continues to get better as you get closer!

When we got to the lake, the clouds and light rain seemed to follow us. For a moment, it looked like we would be hiking in the rain the rest of the day. We packed up our stuff and started to leave, but then it cleared up! So we headed back to the lake with hopes of enjoying an hour or more at the lake. Thankfully, we had some good weather come in and we were able to sit and relax at Snowmass for a little while before packing up and heading closer to the base of the final pass.

Our final campsite was our least favorite, but we still found some great spots to hang out once we were set up. Plus we had an incredible meadow right by our site that was so peaceful and beautiful. We did have a little bit of an issue getting water at this site since it was really muddy, but eventually, we made it work! This was our final night on the trail and we only had one pass to go!

We got up early the next day so we could get over the pass in plenty of time. We had heard that this last pass, Buckskin Pass, was the hardest of them all and we had a time limit to get to the bus. So we headed out, fully ready to accept whatever challenges came our way.

And then… it was super easy. Like we made it to the top of the pass in record time and it wasn’t hard or technical at all. So maybe the backside going down was going to be harder? …but it wasn’t. There were a few spots of rocks, but it was nothing compared to some of our other hikes and even compared to some of the other spots on this trail. We still aren’t sure why everyone says this pass is so hard…

The rest of the way was pretty easy as it was all downhill. We made it back to the bus in plenty of time and even got to stop for lunch on the way home. Overall, Four Pass Loop is a 10 out of 10 recommend for anyone who enjoys backpacking. It is not an easy trail and you should definitely have some experience before you go, but it’s also not insanely difficult or demanding. I’m so glad we got to do this bucket-list trip and explore the beauty of the Maroon Bells!