Labor Day weekend saw us with our second consecutive weekend to escape into the Colorado Mountains and explore. After completing a nice little trip in the San Juans the weekend before (see the previous blog post), we were looking to both up the difficulty factor of the routes we would take as well as spend some down time at camp chilling out and being low key.
A plan was hatched to start in Marble, CO and drive Schofield Pass to Crested Butte, then Pearl Pass over to Aspen, Haggerman Pass to Leaville, and Mosquito Pass to Alma. This would give us a good mix of one of my favorite towns in CO as well as conquering Colorado’s most dangerous road, and North America’s highest through road. Once again the unusually rainy summer that Colorado was experiencing was keeping things slick and making some tough routes that much tougher. Off we go…
The road from Marble into Crystal is anything but smooth. Narrow, rocky, and rugged are the defining characteristics for the 5 miles.
Ironically, one of the most photographed, iconic spots in Colorado is in town of Crystal, the Crystal Mill. It used water power to drive large air compressors that powered drills in the nearby mines.
Kristian Saile 