Aspen Mountain
We'd had a long and wonderful three-day weekend in the area, and Aspen Mountain would be our last trail before heading for home. We love ski mountain trails in the summer, and this looked like a good one. It wasn't long, but it sure was steep.
The top part wasn't nearly as steep as the bottom, but we didn't know that yet. We saw a family on dirtbikes but otherwise we had the top to ourselves. The gondola was running, and it was a peaceful area.
We got to a relatively flat area under the gondolas and spotted quite a few skydivers lazily doing circles nearby. We stopped there for a while, enjoying the quiet buzzing of the gondolas and the scenery in the fading light. We could even see Aspen far below us. Then, the previously empty gondolas had people in them who were heading up to the Sundeck Restaurant. We waved at them and they waved back. It was very relaxing and nice.
But we had a lot of highway miles yet to do so we headed down. It wasn't long before it started getting really steep. Bob detected a burning smell from his Jeep so he stopped, but it all seemed fine. We cut back and forth at the switchbacks and wondered how people could ski some of those slopes.
It didn't seem to take long to get to the trailhead in Aspen. We popped out into a parking lot for apartments. There was nowhere to air up and get ready for our trip, so we went through town until we saw the recycling center. We stopped in there to air up.
It was Sunday so there were no options for finding another bolt for Monica's sway bar link. It was off, but the Jeep thought it was reconnected and it was fine with it. Surprisingly, the Jeep did pretty well on the highway.
We stopped at the slowest Wendy's on the planet, had dinner, and then headed for home. Bob's Jeep was being squirrely and Monica's Jeep was being weird in the curves, so we drove 55mph on the way home. It was a less stressful drive but it took us a little while. It was well after midnight when we got home to Denver, but it was a great day and a great trip. We're already planning the next one.
