Moose Hunt

Maroon Lake

Today we made the trek from Vail to Aspen. After traveling through some pretty awesome cutouts in the mountainside the road took us through several smaller towns including Glenwood Springs. An hour and a half after leaving our hotel we arrived in Aspen. We turned north and headed up into the mountains traveling about 12 miles to our detination the Maroon Bells area. Maroon Bells is a beautiful valley between several towering mountain peaks and is a popular destination for hikers. Our objective was Crater Lake, a gorgeous alpine lake at the end of a 2 mile hike up into the mountains.

The hike was fairly easy with a small elevation gain of about 800 feet. Along the way we were treated to pretty views of Maroon Lake and dense groves of Aspen encircled by several 14k peaks. Unfortunately as we arrived a Crater Lake we discovered the lake was a bit dried up. Combined with the overcast weather the photo opportunities were limited at best. Both Maroon Peak and North Maroon Peak were shrouded in a thick blanket of clouds that refused to budge during our visit.

Crater Lake

We did have the opportunity to meet some very nice folks up at the lake though. A man from Montana with two golden-doodles was just headed out for a week of camping in the wilderness. Another couple was just making their descent from the mountains after camping for 4 days. As we made our descent from the lake the clouds finally parted in the valley below treating us to some very nice views of Maroon Lake.

We drove back down into Aspen and had a nice lunch at the Red Onion. As usual Lauren ordered way to much food and we left with a few leftovers. My Elk Burger with pepperjack cheese was tasty and satisfying after our hike. We spent the next hour or so browsing the shops in and around Aspen. To say that Aspen is not cheap is an understatement. It is a town for the truly afluent. Most of the stores were top fashion designers like Gucci and Prada. We perused the Ralph Lauren store and found the $900 cashmere sweaters to be a bit out of our budget.

During our hike down from Crater Lake we encountered a few patches of light rain and Lauren occaisionally struggled to maintain solid footing - she was wearing regular tennis shoes! After days of trying to convince her she finally conceeded that she needed some hiking shoes. We left the super rich fashion stores and headed into a local outfitter and got Lauren hooked up with some hiking shoes. Success!

Leaving Aspen we drove back to in Avon to catch a free BBQ before heading back out into the mountains. Our final destination for the day was Piney Lake, an alpine lake north of Vail. During a previous hike a local we met suggested we head up to Piney at dusk to catch moose feeding on the lake grasses. After a pretty rough drive up a dirt road we made it to Piney Lake around 7:00 pm. To our dismay it first appeared the area was closed off behind private land, Piney Lake Ranch.

After a few miutes of trudging around evaluting the situation I encountered a few hunters walking up the road. They were camped a bit down the road and were stalking a few elk in the fading light - it is muzzle loader hunting season. The two hunters confirmed that a trail just off the parking lot was indeed public land and would take us to the lake. We grabbed our gear and quickly headed off onto the trail. After a few hundred yards we were at the lake. At first we could not see anything, but we heard deep grunting from the other side of the lake. I trained my long telephoto lense on the other side of Piney Lake to where the forest touched the waters edge and there he was, a huge adult bull moose! Mission success!

Our Moose!

We headed back to the car and met up with the two hunters again. They had come up empty handed but were thrilled that we saw the moose. I showed them a couple of the pictures, we talked a bit more about the wilderness and parted ways. We had a long 10 mile drive down the mountain on a dirt road in the moonlight. On the way we saw lots of critters including a pair of young doe walking up the road. Once we finally got back to paved roads we breathed a sigh of relief and headed home for some beer and snacks.