Aspen Colorado hiking trails These Aspen Colorado hiking trails feature mountain vistas, aspen trees, lakes, creeks, and anything else I think you might like. And if I find any waterfalls, I'll tell you about those too. But so far, I haven't seen or heard about any waterfalls on any Aspen hiking trails other than the cascading waterfall at the Maroon Bells. (And I did see a small one on the way to the Lyle Lake trailhead; see below.) And speaking of the Maroon Bells, I think that's the first best place to explore a few Aspen Colorado hiking trails. So if you'd like to see the Maroon Bells for yourself, do visit my Maroon Bells page. You'll see some of the easier hikes that start there along with directions, and other good information. If you'd like to do an Aspen hiking trail that features lots of aspen trees, visits two lakes, and has wonderful views of Mt. Sopris, you should do the hike to Thomas Lakes. It's the second hike on my Colorado Fall hikes page. Although you can do this hike any time during the hiking season, we chose to do it in the fall because of all those aspen trees. The following Aspen Colorado hiking trail involves crossing a creek, (no bridge), to reach the trailhead. So you should probably have a high clearance vehicle if you want to do this hike. We did this hike in late August and the water wasn't deep; just deep enough to need a higher clearance vehicle.
Directions to Avalanche Creek trailhead: from Hwy. 82 in Carbondale, turn south onto Hwy. 133. Drive about 12.7 miles then turn left onto Road 310. (You'll see the sign there for Avalanche Creek.) Cross the bridge over the Crystal River and follow the dirt road for about 2.7 miles to the Avalanche Campground. Drive through the campground to the far end of it where you'll see the parking lot, and this is also where the trail starts. This Aspen Colorado hiking trail starts out by following an easy path along Avalanche Creek. You'll see aspen trees in various places along the trail and in some places, you can also see them off to your right, on the neighboring mountainside. Most of this trail is thickly forested, so it's a good hike to do on a warm day. Maybe around half way into the hike, you'll come to a creek crossing that's a little tricky. There are rocks and logs across the creek but they're not as sturdy as they could be. If you have hiking sticks, they are very useful for getting across this creek. On the other side, the trail continues up at a gentle pace. After a little while, the trail gets steeper and pretty much stays that way for most of the rest of the hike. Towards the last part of this Aspen Colorado hiking trail, you come to a large aspen forest with tall aspen trees. Shortly after this, you come to a trail intersection. Continue straight on the Avalanche Creek trail. Soon you'll be heading downhill through some switchbacks. In about two minutes, you'll reach the bridge which is the turnaround point for this hike. Enjoy :-).
Directions to Lyle Lake trailhead: from Aspen, take Hwy. 82 north towards Basalt. Turn right onto Basalt Ave. which is at a light. Follow the circle around to the left and follow directions for the Ruedi Reservoir. Keep going and continue on past the Ruedi Reservoir and along the Fryingpan River. When you come to the dirt road on your right going to the Fryingpan Lakes, stay left on the Hagerman Pass Road which is Road 105. This road will soon turn to dirt. When you come to the intersection of the Hagerman Pass Road, and the Ivanhoe Lake Road, (you’ll see the sign), I suggest you park along the side of the road unless you have a high clearance vehicle. At this point, the Hagerman Pass Road turns into a 4-wheel drive road but it’s only about 200 feet up this road to the Lyle Lake trailhead. So it’s easy enough to walk, (left), up the Hagerman Pass road and onto the trail. Before you make the drive to the trailhead for this Aspen Colorado hiking trail, make sure you have plenty of gas, because we saw no place to get it after Basalt. From Basalt, it took us a little over an hour to reach the Lyle Lake trailhead. And at the trailhead, there is no sign saying Lyle Lake; but there is a map on the bulletin board showing Lyle Lake, as well as Mormon Lake which is further up the trail after Lyle Lake.
O.K., let’s follow this Aspen Colorado hiking trail up to Lyle Lake. The beginning of the trail starts out fairly steeply then it gets more moderate and easier for most of the rest of the hike until you get to about the ¾ mark. You will follow Lyle Creek for a good portion of the trail, and cross it a couple of times on stepping rocks but it’s not hard.
So, as I mentioned earlier, the middle part of this Aspen Colorado hiking trail is moderate or fairly easy until you get to the ¾ point of the trail. At that point, the trail starts to get steeper and it gets harder to breathe since you are at a higher altitude. (This is one of the higher hikes on this website.) So, take your time, rest if you need to; and before long, you’ll reach Lyle Lake which will make it all worth it :-).
Directions to Chapman Lake trailhead: follow the directions, (above), to Lyle Lake and continue on past the Ruedi Reservoir and along the Fryingpan River. Drive past the towns of Meredith and Thomasville. Next, be looking for the sign that says Norrie Colony. When you see it, turn right onto the road at that sign. Go straight, cross the creek and after about 200 yards, take the left fork and follow this good dirt road. From this point on, you’ll see the signs for Chapman Lake. Go left at the first sign you’ll see for it, then right at the next sign for it. Continue on this road and just before the trailhead, you’ll see a sign that says “trailhead”. Shortly after that, you’ll see the trailhead on your left, which only holds about 5-6 cars. At the trailhead, there is no sign saying Chapman Lake, (not when we were there anyway.) But there is a sign on a tree a short ways up the trail, that says Chapman Lake. I wasn’t sure if we were on the right trail until I saw that sign :-). Anyway, this Aspen Colorado hiking trail starts off moderately and stays that way for about half of the hike. For the most part, you are hiking through a pine forest but there is enough room between the trees to let the sun in. Along the way, you’ll see a few scattered aspen trees here and there. At around the half-way point or so of this Aspen Colorado hiking trail, you’ll cross a small creek on a log. After that, the trail is easier the rest of the way to the lake. At the lake there is a stand of aspen trees which would be beautiful on a fall color day. Also, the lake itself is covered in lily pads; it must be a frog paradise although I don’t remember if we heard them there or not :-).
Directions to Weller Lake trailhead: from Aspen, drive east on Hwy. 82 for about 9 miles; just before the Weller Campground. It’s just a short ways beyond mile marker 49 and you’ll see the parking area on the right side of the road. The parking lot for this Aspen Colorado hiking trail is small and only holds about 9 or 10 “official” parking spots. After that, there is room for maybe 5 or 6 cars on the side of the parking area road. So it’s better to get there earlier rather than later. Keep in mind too that this trail is very popular, being so close to Aspen. This Aspen Colorado hiking trail goes through a lush pine forest for most of the hike, so it’s a good one to do on a warm day. Towards the beginning of the hike, you pass by a nice stand of aspens. Soon after that, you cross the river on a bridge. And right after that, you’ll go up some steep steps in the bank. Next, you’ll come to a fork in the trail and you want to take the right fork. From here, this Aspen Colorado hiking trail will zig zag it’s way up the mountain until you reach Weller Lake. Enjoy the lake and when you’re ready, go back the way you came. I'm planning on doing more Aspen Colorado hiking trails this summer, (2012), so when I do, I'll be adding them here. And if you know any Aspen hiking trails that you think should be on this page, do let me know about them so I can check them out. Have fun out there on the hiking trail! Return from Aspen Colorado hiking trails to Aspen Colorado page. |
Avalanche Creek Trail
Lyle Lake
Another thing you might be interested to know as you’re making the drive up to this Aspen Colorado hiking trail is that there is a small but pretty waterfall, (actually a set of two waterfalls), that you can see from the road if you’re looking at the right time. It’s easy to miss so here’s how to find it: once you’re on Road 105, look for mile marker #8. The waterfall is just a short distance beyond this mile marker, on the right side of the road and under the power lines, through the trees. It’s easy to miss, so watch carefully. 
This Aspen Colorado hiking trail is fairly open although there definitely are pine trees along the way near the trail; just not a forest. Instead, you have open meadows with lots and lots of wildflowers. In fact, this is probably one of the best wildflower hikes we’ve done. We did this hike in late July and the wildflowers were excellent then. 
Chapman Lake
A side note to this Aspen Colorado hiking trail is that we saw a fox on the side of the dirt road on our way back from doing this hike, so keep an eye out for them. The one we saw seemed to be relatively unafraid of our car because after initially running a few steps at the approach of our car, he stayed on the side of the road and continued on with his day. So I was able to take some pictures of him, one of which you see here.
Weller Lake