Castle Peak

Today Josh and I woke up early and headed over to Castle Peak, near a little town called “Aspen”. Josh’s family was out of town, so I left my house Friday night and spent the night up at his place in Woodland Park so that we could get an early start. We left his house at 3:30 a.m. and started hiking about four hours later. 

The drive to the normal trail head didn’t really take that long…we just kept driving up the old Montezuma Mine road until it stopped at a little over 12,000 feet. This hike is about 13 miles round trip for most people, but because I have a vehicle that can handle a stream crossing and a 4WD road, we cut the trip down from 13 miles to three. 

This trip was part 4WD adventure, part hike. There aren’t very many 14ers that you can drive this far up the trail, so it was a nice change. We passed everyone else on the mountain today, while driving and while hiking. Starting fresh that high is a big advantage. It only took us 50 minutes to hike to the summit from where we parked and 40 minutes to get back down. We cut off a little bit of time on the way down with a glissade down a snowfield. Neither of us touched our water on the hike, highlighting how hydrated we already were, the short trip length, the cloud cover, and the humidity. 

The area around Aspen is very pretty. It’s one of the greenest areas in Colorado. The drive over Independence Pass and through the town Aspen was beautiful. The low hanging clouds and fog were a nice change from the recent hot and dry weather we’ve been dealing with back in town. I’ll definitely be going back to this area for a little sightseeing and camping in the future. 

Waterfalls, stream crossing in my truck


Beginning of road, top of the road at 12,000 feet


Other hikers headed up the ridge, Castle Peak, Jeep and campsite at parking lot


Valley near Independence Pass, fog near the summit, glissade down


Where's Toyota?, fog near and at the summit

Valley views, Aspen gas