RHH's photos with the keyword: trailrider pass

Taken on our 2020 backpacking trip in the Colorado Rockies, the view is from our second day's camp just over Trailrider Pass.

The photo was taken from a backpacking camp in the Colorado Rockies when we hiked and backpacked there in 2020. We were camped on the west side of Trailrider Pass and were waiting for the sunset when the photo was taken.

We are home again after driving over 2000 miles (3200 km) in two days. We were in Michigan visiting family and left Wednesday evening, drove through the night and all day Thursday, slept for a few hours and arrived home about 7 AM Friday. Taken on a 2020 backpacking trip in the Colorado Rockies, the photo was taken from Trailrider Pass (12,415 ft, 3,784 m) as we came back over the pass in the morning, the second day of our hike. We were on our way to Buckskin Pass (12462 ft, 3798 m). The peak at the left is Hagerman Peak with Snowmass Mountain behind it. The lightly colored outcrop is gypsum which we found also at the top of the pass. I was hiking with my brother the same brother with whom I hiked this past summer.

This photo was taken on a 2020 backpacking trip in the Colorado Rockies and is a photo of Snowmass Lake from Trailrider Pass. We were coming back over the pass after camping in the basin below Trailrider the night before.

Photographed near Trailrider Pass in the Colorado Rockies.

This was Trailrider Pass in the Colorado Rockies when we hiked up and through the pass for a second time. We had come up and over from Snowmass Lake the day before and were on our way back over the pass and on to Buckskin Pass when the photo was taken.

This was my campsite in the valley below Trailrider Pass in the Colorado Rockies where I and my brother camped for a night before hiking back over the pass and on to Buckskin Pass.

Taken from the top of Trailrider Pass in the Colorado Rockies, the photo shows the Geneva Lake trail winding down to the west with several hikers on the trail. We had hiked up from the other side of the pass from Snowmass Lake and camped that evening in the valley shown here near where the trail disappears. We would come up and over Trailrider again the next morning and would hike down past Snowmass Lake and then up again and over Buckskin Pass. I will be hiking in the Colorado Rockies in a couple of weeks with a grandson and with the brother who was with me on this hike. We'll be hiking in a different area, though. On another note. We are in Canada visiting our daughter and her family. She is due with a baby any day and we are here to help and I'll be here for two weeks, my wife a bit longer. We had to have covid tests within 72 hours of crossing the border, had to register with the Canadian government and health service with an phone app, had to have proof of negative tests, proof of immediate family in Canada, had to pick up self-testing kits at the border and have to test ourselves today and eight days later, have to report on our health every day and have to quarantine for 14 days, though we can do that at their home and with them.

This photo looks back down Trailrider Pass (12,415 ft). We had climbed the pass from Snowmass Lake and our trail is just visible at the bottom of the photo.

We followed the Geneva Pass trail from Snowmass Lake to Trailrider Pass when we were hiking in the Colorado Rockies last summer. This is Snowmass Lake from the pass.

After camping overnight at Snowmass Lake we hiked up Trailrider Pass by way of the Geneva Lake trail. We tried another trail first but the morning was very wet, the trail was brushy and we were soon soaked. After hiking back to camp and around we found our way and these were the views as we climbed the pass. Trailrider Pass is 12,415 feet (3784 m).

The American Pika is a small mammal related to rabbits. They are found at higher altitudes and live in rocky areas where they make their burrows and graze on grasses and flowers. This Pika was photographed above Snowmass Lake near Trailrider Pass in the Colorado Rockies while we were backpacking there.

Photographed near Trailrider Pass in the Colorado Rockies this Pika is a small mammal related to rabbits and hares.

I am home again after a week of backpacking in Colorado. I arrived home last night tired but feeling very good about the adventure. My worries about the altitude and the distance proved groundless. The company was great (two of my younger brothers), the wildflowers and scenery were spectacular and the hiking itself went very well, though it is also good to be back home. We were on the trail early Monday morning and hiked out again late Thursday afternoon. We hiked 30 miles (49 km) and climbed about 6000 feet in elevation (1828 m) over all. We did not do the Four Passes Loop as we had intended but cut about 10 miles off that and did a different loop that took us over five passes instead of four, this pass twice and three others. The two photos I've posted sum up the hike in terms of scenery. This is Snowmass Lake from Trailrider Pass, the first of the five passes, taken on a day that was partly sunny and partly cloudy and stormy, the kind of weather we had every day. The other photo was taken later the same day on the other side of the pass and shows why these mountains are called the Maroon Bells. The first day we hiked up the Snowmass Creek drainage to Snowmass Lake, the lake shown in this photo. The second day, the day this photo was taken, we hiked from the lake up and over Trailrider Pass to the meadows on the other other side of the pass and camped there. That was our shortest day of hiking but also took us over the most difficult of the five passes. The third day we hiked back over Trailrider to Snowmass Lake and then up again to Buckskin Pass and down to the meadows on the other side of the pass where we camped the night. The fourth day we hiked over Willow Pass and East Snowmass Pass and down the valley to the East Snowmass trailhead where we finished our hiking. The five passes we traversed are all over 12000 feet (3658 m). Trailrider Pass is 12415 feet in elevation (3784 m), Buckskin Pass 12462 feet (3798 m), Willow Pass 12570 feet (3831 m) and East Snowmass Pass 12680 feet (3865 m). There is rough map at this website: www.aspentrailfinder.com/snowmass-lake . We did the northern part of this loop.

These Colorado Mountains are known as the Maroon Bells for their rich colors. They are west of Aspen, Colorado, and are the mountains in which we backpacked for four days this past week. This photo was taken from our second campsite in the meadows southwest of Trailrider Pass and near sunset.