Jeepers Creepers! I guess we're Leaf Peepers!
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Fall Foliage in the Kebler Pass Area
Sept 28-Oct 1, 2006
People in Colorado keep going on about the aspens. This is my fourth fall in the state and it's always nice to see patches of flaming yellow amidst the deep coniferous green on the hillsides of the Front Range. It's pretty, but I never thought it was worth the hype. You see, I grew up in northern New Hampshire, land of trees, widely recognized as having the best fall foliage on the planet. I used to get woken up in the morning in early October by the safety-orange glow from a large sugar maple in the yard. The hillsides were painted with every available color in the folliage pallette from pale green all the way to deep red. Frankly, I never saw what the big deal was. We used to make fun of the middle-aged and older tourists who would flock to New England and clog the byways with Buicks and toddle across the road to get yet another photo of another red maple or white birch.
Chris, who is from Indiana and thus doesn't know any better, was organizing a Fall Color Trip to the Kebler Pass area out near Crested Butte. This part of the state is famous for aspens (you can guess where the nearby town of Aspen got its name). He'd been there last year and took 1300 photos of the spectacular trees. I wasn't sold on the leaves part, but three nights of car camping and various outdoorsy fun sounded good. Sign us up!
It turned out to be pretty spectacular! I'll let the photos do most of the talking...
Thursday
Drove out via Breckenridge and Glenwood Canyon with Chris and his friend Wayne from Indiana. Headed south to McClure Pass where we got our first real taste of Colorado foliage. Spectacular in a way that the Front Range isn't. Instead of little patches of aspens in a sea of spruce, it was great hillsides of aspens, all subtly varying shades of yellow in the brilliant afternoon sun. The muted reds and browns of willows and scrub oaks, and the dusting of snow on the rocky peaks served to highlight the spectacular leaves even more. Wow!Continued past Paonia Reservoir and up the Kebler Pass Road just at sunset when the colors are most spectacular. Wow! Set up camp at Lost Lake with a good view of East Beckwith Peak. Many photos were taken.
 The Raggeds and Ruby-Anthracite Creek |
 East and West Beckwith Mountains from the Kebler Pass Road. |
Friday
Sunrise from Lost Lake was really spectacular. The lake was glassy-smooth and reflected East Beckwith Mountain gorgeously. The shore was, of course, lined with photogeeks.
 East Beckwith at dawn over the Lost Lake Slough. |
 Random aspen forest in the morning sun. |
After a late start, we headed for the Ruby Range near Kebler Pass itself. Drove up past Lake Irwin and got another mile or two before the road became too muddy and rough to continue. The plan was to climb Ruby Peak, then traverse to the taller Mt. Owen and Purple Mountain before dropping back into the valley and returning via the 4wd road. We choose a direct line up Ruby which ended up being about 1500' of loose scree and grass scrambling. The last few hundred feet were easy ridge walking with spectacular views to a snowy summit.
 The Beckwiths and Mt. Gunnison (left), Mt. Marcellina and Dark Canyon (center), and the Raggeds (right) from the summit of Ruby Peak. |
The views were everything that had been promissed and more! The high peaks of the Elks were visible to the north and we picked out the Maroon Bells, Pyramid, and so forth beautifully banded with snow. To the west, the huge basin between the Beckwiths and the Raggeds was every shade of green to orange imaginable. Mt. Marcellina stood by itself in this spelendor and we spied a deep cleft in the forest that wound around three sides of it. Amazing!
 Luna on the summit with Mt. Owen in the background. Those are the Maroon Bells in the far distance. |
 Descending to the Ruby-Owen saddle with spectacular views to the west. |
Chris and Wayne were feeling ambitious and completed the trek over to Owen and Purple, while Amy and I descended to the Ruby-Owen saddle and then down past Green Lake to the road. By the time we got below the lake, Chris radioed saying that they were stuck on Purple and couldn't see a good descent. We scouted a route, but found nothing from our wider vantage point either. They ended up coming back across the ridge and coming down the way we did. We hiked out a couple miles of pleasant, easy road to the cars and arrived back at camp at dusk. We whipped up a scrumptious curry and relaxed by the fire while the stars came out above.
Saturday
Tired from our mountain ascent of Friday, we opted for "something easier" today. I was intrigued at the huge canyon we'd spied from Ruby. It turns out that this is Dark Canyon and it winds for many miles through the valley. There is a trail through the lower portion, and other trails connect making a point-to-point hike possible. We weren't sure what the distance was or what the trail was like, but we guessed (based on other trail milages) that it was about 8 miles. Sounded easy enough.We hit the trail at the Ruby Anthracite Trailhead at 11 am. The trail started beautifully and wasted no time diving into the very impressive Dark Canyon. For a mapped trail, it was pretty rough, however, with lots of mud and quite a bit of brush intruding into the trail. The sights, however, were incredible. Steep cliffs hemmed in the roaring river on both sides. In some places, the cliffs were probably 200' tall with plenty of hanging valleys, nooks, embayments, and towers.
 Into Dark Canyon! |
 Hiking Dark Canyon. |
After four miles, we climbed up what had turned from canyon into deep river valley via something called, melodramatically, the Devils Staircase. Then we crossed a ridge and started descending toward the canyon again and the east face of Mt. Marcellina. There were occasional cairns or blazes on trees, but blowdowns blocked the way frequently and, eventually, we ended up off-trail and thrashing through thick vegetation. Lacking further direction, we thrashed down to a stream drainage where we found a more promissing (but still pretty minimal) trail which we followed down to the river again.
 More Dark Canyon scenery |
 Above the river crossing at mile 7. |
Beginning to suspect that our 6-8 mile estimate was a bit off, we waded the stream and set out for the last few miles. Chris and Wayne took off to get to the upper trail head and shuttle cars around while Amy and I took a more leisurely approach. After a short snack break, we found the ascent trail and followed it up very steep terrain to the canyon/valley rim.
 The Ruby range from a spectacular set of beaver ponds. Ruby Peak is the right-most. |
Sunday
After three perfectly cloudless days, we couldn't really complain that patchy clouds and haze were ruining our vacation. But after two big hikes, we were pretty tired and decided to have a photo day. We drove over Kebler Pass and stopped at the adjacent Ohio Pass to take pictures. Then over to Crested Butte and up to the town of Gothic where more photos were taken in a desultory manner. We had a quick lunch in Crested Butte, then parted ways. Amy and I drove over Cottonwood Pass and made several more stops to burn up the rest of the film.All in all, it was a great long weekend. Not having any set goals besides "seeing the leaves" made it quite relaxing. And the leaves were quite spectacular. They're still not the same as New Hampshire leaves, but the combination of blue skies, yellow leaves, and a dusting of snow on the peaks makes for an impressive combination. I can see this becoming an anual event.
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