Ice Cave!

I had another trip to Snowmass for a conference this summer and with our free afternoon on the last day of the conference I convinced Jim, Ben, and Destiny to go for a hike where we would take the Silver Queen Gondola to the top of Aspen Highlands and hike back down to town for dinner. Destiny was torn between joining us and another group that was looking for an outing with minimal exertion, but the promise of it being a downhill hike won her over. Our plans were thwarted though when we got into Aspen and found that the gondola was closed for a private event as part of the Aspen Food & Wine Festival.

Looking for an alternate plan, we briefly considered renting e-bikes to ride up to Maroon Bells, but Ben came up with a better idea when he suggested we hike the grottos trail to the ice caves. We called a Lyft and on the short drive to the grottos up towards Independence pass we lost all cell service and started to wonder how we would get back. Happily, after a quick negotiation with our driver, she agreed to come back and pick us up in an hour and a half at the spot she dropped us off. After she left though, we realized we were not at the head of the grottos trail, but at the rock fall by the road above the actual caves. We realized this wasn't the right spot after some fun rock scrambling that was a bit more than Destiny bargained for. Thankfully it wasn't too much of a walk back down the road to the real entrance to the trail, and the actual hike was an easy short loop that also took us by some glacial erratics and waterfalls. 

The highlight though was the ice caves themselves. Formed by glacial forces, the grottos were beautiful. It was a bit of scrambling to climb down into the grottos, and footing was tricky on the ice. The rest of the crew was tempted to just look in from above, but once I saw the view from around the bend into the caves, I told everyone this wasn't to be missed. 

When it was time to head back, Ben and I agreed to hike back up to the drop off spot to meet our driver and we'd come back to pick up Jim and Destiny. After our pick up time passed we started to get a bit nervous about getting back to Aspen, so I scrambled up the rocks to try to get a clear view of the sky for a satellite connection. It took some work, but I was able to get a signal and text our driver, and sure enough she was on her way just running a bit late. She picked us up, and we were shortly back in Aspen having a wonderful dinner. 

And on Saturday I flew home just in time for Elaine and I to at least spend the evening of our 22nd anniversary together. Hopefully one of these years Elaine will actually be able to join me for a summer Snowmass trip!

(click here for all the pictures)