Aspen Highlands Mountain - steeeep

This hike is pretty nice - it's a really long one up the access road (and through trails that shortcut the access road) but goes to around 12,000 feet and is fairly moderate hiking MOST of the time. The last mile is insanely steep, which is always fun to look up and say, "Yeah, I'm gonna hike that." It was really nice and a great view, and I felt up reaaaally high. I ate my lunch on the porch of a closed cafeteria which I'm sure is busy in the winter. Climbing back down though, was very tough because of how steep it was for the first mile down. Halfway down the steepest part my quads AND glutes were shaking already! This made what would normally be an easy last 3/4th of the way down really really slow and difficlt because my knees kept giving out, I suppose because my quads couldn't support them. The next two days I was definitely walking like a pregnant woman. Seriously. But it's another mountain that I love looking at the top of when I'm driving to work and thinking, "I've been up there! I've WALKED up there!!!"

A nice view:


Perty.....


These guys were just chillin' at the ski lift on the top of the mountain, they stare at me as I walked by...


And at one point on my way back down, one of them followed me a little ways to see what I was up to, I suppose, but I thought it was cool, and just looked back and him and said, "Hey buddy!"


A picture of the climb down that I knew would be tough, but had no idea it'd be THAT tough. You can't even see the slope in this pic because it disappears downward...