Aspen, Mesa Verde, Durango-Silverton Railroad - Day 1

Hello everyone,

I am back with some more travel experiences' posts.  Just like my Yellowstone trip, I am really behind on posting about this one but want to make sure I get it in by end of 2014 :).  This trip was mainly planned by a friend to see the fall colours and one of the best places to check out the fall colours in Colorado is none other than Aspen!  To make it more than a day trip, we decided to cover nearby sight-seeing areas as well, such as Mesa Verde national park and Durango-Silverton Railroad, and made it into 3-days trip.  Originally, only 6 of us were confirmed to go on this trip, so we booked the minivan and found lodging at Durango Mountain Resort (2 bedroom, 1 sofa bed condo, fully furnished with kitchen) which we got it in good deal ($220/2 nights).  We booked through Durango Mountain Resort but we stayed in Cascade Mountain Resort since they have properties there as well.  Just the night before our trip, one more couple was added to join us on this trip, so we changed the booking from 2-beds to 3-beds and still had a good deal ($330/2 nights) since it was available.  The more the merrier :).  I took this trip on the last weekend of September which is said to be the best time to see the fall colours (thanks to online reviews) and I agree!!

We started our journey early morning around 5:30 am on September 26 and made Aspen, Maroon Bells in particular, our first destination to reach but not before we made several pit stops on the way.  Now, I am not really familiar with which route we took but it was very convenient to see different places before we reached Aspen.  Our first stop was Twin Lakes, that was very confusing to find in first place, which we only saw part of since we didn't know that there was a 2nd location from where you could see the lake as well.  This was definitely a good start of the trip since we saw some beautiful colours in the area.

Twin Lakes

Moving on, our next stop was Independence Pass.  On the way to Independence Pass, we came across a point which was at a quite a good elevation and had a beautiful view of the mountains.  I don't know what highway it was but you would definitely pass through here if you are leaving from twin lakes and going to Independence pass.  It was gorgeous view at the top while you could see the one road formed between the mountain range at the base.  We did a good dose of photo session here and then moved on.  Actually, I should warn you all ahead of time that you will read phrases like "photo session" or "selfie" (or both) more likely in every paragraph for every stop that we made :).  Anywayzzz, moving on, we made it to Independence Pass which is one of the high mountain pass in Colorado at the elevation of about 12000+ ft.  By this time, it was definitely feeling little bit chilly, mainly due to being at the high elevation, and the wind was making it more colder than it was.  We stretched our legs and took a very short walk around the Independence Pass trail which had some more beautiful scenery of mountain ranges.  We did some more photo session and took a selfie as well.  We also came across bunch of bike (cycle) riders whom we saw riding from our 2nd stop all the way to Independence Pass.  Hats off to them for taking that route with such a difficult slopes!!  They seemed to be having a great time at the Pass, dancing and singing, waiting for their fellow riders.

Independence Pass

Our next stop on the way was none other than in the middle of the road (on the side but still it's on the road).  That's right!  In the middle of the road where the trees on both sides were booming with beautiful fall colours, different shades of yellow and green colours to be precise,  and making the road look like a passage for travellers!  It was simply beautiful.We were having great time and taking every second to enjoy the places and witness the natural beauty!!

Somewhere in the middle of the road :)

Finally,  we continued our journey to the destination of Maroon Bells, Aspen.  Lucky for us, since we had a year old baby on board with us, we were able to drive straight up to the Maroon Bells parking lot :D.  If it wasn't the case then we would have had to park in the general parking lot, just like everyone else, and take the bus up to the Maroon Bells parking lot.  I am soooooo glad that we were able to take our car to the main parking lot because otherwise we would have not been able to stop on the way to see the Gold  that Colorado has secured all these years in the form of the fall colours :).  See it to believe it!!

Maroon Bells, Aspen

It was probably around 1 or 1:30 pm by the time we reached there and surprisingly, there wasn't any crowd at all.  It was perfect - we found the parking spot and a great picnic area table where we had a nice lunch together.  After a nice meal, we took on the trail to the famous spot of Maroon Bells.  The view was magnificent, magical, and too good to be true!  It was at that moment that we sat down for a "bit" to just relax and enjoy the moment. That "bit" lasted for whole 2 minutes and we got right to our photo session and selifies :) :).  Here are some great pictures for you to enjoy for a "bit".

Maroon Bells, Aspen

Maroon Bells, Aspen

After a good dose of taking pictures and praising the natural beauty around us, we took a very short hike (and some more stops to taking pictures - if you didn't guess that already), we headed back to our car and took off for our Condo in Durango.  We were supposed to meet our friends (who joined on the trip later on) at this spot but unfortunately missed meeting them by just a small margin (due to lack of phone signal at the top).  It was about 5 hours drive from Maroon Bells to Cascade Mountain Resort, so we reached to the condo around 9 pm.  It was dark and there was barely anything around to get something to eat and whatever was around was already closed, so we were in a dilemma.  Thankfully there was a local pizza place open (forgot the name :-/) which was going to close at 9:30 pm, so we got there in time to place our order.  The order was going to take some time so we decided to check out our condo and unload the things from our car to start settling down.

We got to the condo and were just in AWE of it! It was a beautiful 2-story condo where 1st floor has open living room, kitchen, dining area, 1 bedroom and full bathroom and 2nd floor has a HUGE master bedroom, equally HUGE master bathroom, 2nd bedroom, 2nd full-bathroom and an open loft which had a sofa-bed!!  Amaaazing....is all I could say seeing the place!  The girls chilled out while the boys went to get the Pizza.  We had a nice meal together and then just relaxed while our friends reached the condo.  Thanks to them, for solving our 2nd dilemma of getting groceries, who stopped by at a supermarket on their way to get all the necessary things for 2 days we were going to be at the condo.  So, tip to all those who want to stay in this area, make sure you get whatever you need to get before you enter this town since there is nothing close-by!!  Our friends came around mid-night, we hung out with them for a while and then all of us called it a night around 1/1:30 am.  This was a great day with all the stops we made since we were not rushing for anything and took our time to enjoy every chance we had :).

I think I have already made this post long enough for you to fall asleep...so, I will stop here and let you continue, if you're interested enough to come back and read some more, in next post.  Until then, have a great day :) :)