New Mexico Camping: Four Pass Loop (Maroon Bells - Snowmass Wilderness, near Aspen, CO)

Latitude, Longitude: 39.0986257, -106.9406552 Elevation: ~9585ft (at trailhead)

Elevation varies from 9585' at trailhead to ~12,500' at each pass.

Weather Forecast: Maroon Bells Weather Forecast (4315m) (mountain-forecast.com)

Fire Restrictions: White River National Forest - Home (usda.gov)

Intro

I debated and debated over whether to post this. Afterall, this blog is supposed to be about camping in New Mexico. Aspen, Colorado is decidedly not New Mexico. I'm still not sure I won't publish this and then immediately take it down. However, taking a group of young men on a 4-day backpacking trip requires a lot of advanced planning, and at the time we were planning this trip for early July 2022, all major wilderness areas in New Mexico were closed due to fire danger and approximately half the state seemed to actively be on fire. 2022 has been a rough year for our beautiful forests.

When looking for options outside New Mexico for a trip this summer, we came across abundant information resources about this amazing trail that was breathtakingly beautiful and a solid bucket list item, along with being a decent challenge for experienced backpackers. We had to go for it. With all those resources, however, there likely isn't a need for one more blog post about one of the most well-trafficked trails in Colorado. Perhaps this is a cathartic exercise in recounting all the things I should have done better, or just a good opportunity to post some pictures of an amazing place.

The Four Pass Loop is a 27-mile trek through four different mountain passes, each around 12,500'. From the Maroon Lake Trailhead (9585ft), you will climb up to a 12,500ft mountain pass, and then typically most of the campsites are around 11,500ft. Phrases such as "breathtaking", "iconic backpacking experience", "must be on your bucket list" are common in reviews of this amazing trek.

Resources

Do your homework; be prepared. First, watch this stunning video by Steven Smith, who filmed his hike on the trail. It has a good smattering of the beauty and the weather you are likely to encounter, and is oddly satisfying to watch. 28 Miles Alone on the Four Pass Loop - ASMR - Inspired by Kraig Adams - YouTube.

USFS Official Resource on the trail; very helpful. Four Pass Loop - West Maroon to Buckskin (usda.gov)

USFS detailed info on available campsites (numbering here referenced below)

Trail Map with mileage, by AspenTrailfinder.com

Several other informative posts:

Top Hike: The Four Pass Loop | Hiking Aspen | Aspen Snowmass

Four Pass Loop | Map, Guide - Colorado | AllTrails

Four Pass Loop, near Aspen, Colorado (hikingwalking.com)

Hike of the Week: Maroon Bells / Four Pass Loop – Paria Outdoor Products

Preparation

Yes, you really *do* need reservations to either park at the trailhead or take the shuttle. The trailhead is a popular destination. We opted for the shuttle because, a) I think the parking lot reservations for the days we had in mind were already full, and b) I *believe* the road is closed to only allow shuttle bus traffic during most of the day, and we didn't want to restrict what time we could get out. See here for more info on reservations. The shuttle leaves from Aspen Highlands Ski Resort (out front, by the parking garage). Parking there is pretty pricey for a multi-day trip, as the 2022 cost was $40/day. I was told there is a place in Aspen where the parking is only $6/day, but it wasn't open then. I think you'd be required to take a free city bus from that location to Aspen Highlands to get to the shuttle.

Yes, you really *do* need to use an approved bear canister. I didn't have one and I've never needed one for camping in New Mexico, so I wasn't thrilled with the idea of buying one. I toyed with the idea of getting a Ursack, which was supposedly approved for use in this area and seemed more usable in future outings than a rigid canister. However, the Ranger told us (and corroborated by other info I saw online) the Ursacks, while technically allowed, weren't recommended, weren't found to be super effective, and likely would be ravaged by rodents which may then lead to larger issues with bears. So, when a friend offered to let me borrow a canister of his, we went that direction.

Let me tell you, stuffing all your food for a 4-day backpacking trip into a rigid canister isn't easy. We barely managed to get food for 2 of us into a 6.9L canister. A member of our group packing food for 1 person into a 4.5L canister had much better luck. However, make sure you plan appropriately so all your trash will also fit in the canister. Pack it in, pack it out. Seems straightforward, but some in our group didn't plan as well as they should have. ("Mountain House"-type dehydrated meals only fit with multiple days of other food if you empty the contents into a ziplock; they come prepackaged with a bunch of air. I like the ease-of-use of their zip-top packaging, though, so I flattened them and stuffed them down along the walls of the canister.)

Bug spray. You will need insect repellant. The.mosquitos.were.winning.

As of 2022, you don't have to have a limited-access permit to hike here, but you do have to fill out a permit upon arrival and indicate which campsite you intend to stay at each day.

The Trek

As is common, we started out going clockwise around the loop. Most people recommend this option, as it begins with a more gradual (but long) climb to the first pass, and some claim that it saves the best scenery (Buckskin Pass) for last. I was all for starting out a bit more gradually. As for "best scenery"; I don't know - it was all pretty amazing. Hard to identify a specific pass or location that was hands down better than others. So, the route we took had us doing approximately 6.5 miles the first day from Maroon Lake to a campsite just past West Maroon Pass, around site number 36 or 37. Doing 3000' elevation in one day, combined with having the climb to the 12,500' pass at the end of the day made it feel like it was the hardest day. Maybe some adjustment to the altitude that first day was part of the difficulty.

Day 2, we hit Frigid Air Pass within the first mile or two from our campsite, climbed down to around 10,500' elevation, and then climbed back up to around 12,000' before we lowered again to a campsite around 11,500'-11,700' (21 or 22). That was definitely the most distance at around 8.5 miles. We were pretty tired, but not as wiped out as from the first day.

Day 3 was pretty easy, relatively speaking. Again, we hit our pass early in the day, within just 1.5 miles or so of our campsite crossing Trail Rider Pass. We did go lower before climbing again partway toward Buckskin pass to stay at Campsite 6. However, the overall distance was only around 5.5 miles, so it was much more relaxing. Plus, the campsite was gorgeous. It was a nice little flat area buried in the pines with a stream on either side of the campsite. Boy, filtered water from those streams was *so* tasty! Oh, but this one was the worst for mosquitos. They were usually worst in the late afternoon/early evening. They didn't usually bother us much in the mornings. I was told that if you take the side hike down to Snowmass Lake (we passed it this day, but the main trail never actually goes down to the lake), the mosquitos are pretty horrendous.

Day 4! Last day! We hit Buckskin Pass early in the day, and then pretty much downhill all the rest of the way out. Honestly, for the first part of the way down from the pass, I didn't think it was all that steep and I wondered why people tried to avoid it. However, as we got further from the pass, it really got steeper and pretty rocky on the way down. Our mileage for the last day was only slightly longer than day 3 around 5.9 miles.

Elevation profile as we went CW around the loop (note, this was the pre-planned trek, not the actual track log; we had battery issues with the GPS preventing an all-inclusive track log):

Our pre-planned trek, including coordinates for some of the campsites we were planning on hitting, can be downloaded here.

Drinking Water

There is water all over the place here, but you can some days go several miles without seeing any water worthy of filtering. Not knowing ahead of time whether our destination campsites would have easy access to water, I ended up filling up my 3L reservoir at least once per day. I ended up not needing to carry that much water and could have generally done with just 2L. As it turns out, each of our campsites had decent access to water. The Wed night site just past West Maroon Pass was only ~75yards from a good stream. We passed an awesome filtering opportunity just before the last ridge on the way to the Thursday night campsite prior to Trail Riders Pass, but ended up with two ponds within 100-200 yards of our campsite. The closest one wasn't great for filtering, but we hit the second pond on the hike out the next day. As mentioned above, the Friday night site (site 6, I think) had super close streams on either side of the campsite.

I really do prefer drinking from a hydration reservoir, but they admittedly take more work to refill (require taking off the pack and partially unpacking to get them out). If you were inclined to just drink from a Nalgene and had easy access to your filter, perhaps you'd just carry 1-2 quarts at any one time and fill up anytime you saw water.

Water Crossings

We had been warned that there would be multiple water crossings throughout the hike. We ended up only having three that required stopping and pulling off our boots. Two the first day on the way to West Maroon Pass, then a third on the second day on the way toward Trail Rider Pass. There are numerous other times you have to step through shallow sections of stream, but usually with rocks or other methods to avoid soaking your boots. I did see some people just tromp on through, with water up to their calves or knees, and they just didn't care. That's not me.

A river crossing in Fravert Basin on the way to Trail Rider Pass

There was another required crossing on Friday. It's the only river crossing called out on the AspenTrailfinder.com map linked above between Snowmass Lake and Buckskin Pass. However, we had been warned that if we headed off to the right (as you hike East) there was a path that led around 100' to some logs that enabled a dry crossing of the river, and then let you loop back to the main trail.

Weather

We really lucked out on the weather. The mountain weather link above turned out to be somewhat decent for predicting the weather. I've found that attempts to predict weather in the mountains are fraught with inaccuracy. In this case, the prediction said we'd get a solid inch of rain and thunder and lightning all Wednesday afternoon, but then not have any rain Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. It also predicted our daily lows would be somewhere in the upper 40s to lower 50s. What we got, thankfully, was no rain or thunder all Wednesday afternoon until minutes after we crested West Maroon Pass and were almost to our campsite. Then, it never rained or thundered again the entire time we were there. The temperatures were a fair bit lower. One morning was around 32F, while the other mornings were in the lower 40s. The daily highs were probably in the 60s, although I'd estimate that on Saturday it might have been in the 70s - it was pretty hot on the way out in the direct sun.