r/Outdoors

Newhalem, Washington

Hi everyone! I've been hiking in Colorado a lot this year and about a month ago, my girlfriend, a friend of mine and I decided to take on the Four Pass Loop in Colorado. The loop that we did was around 30 miles and we went for 4 days/3 nights. We camped along the way, surrounded by stunning nature. The weather didn't always cooperate with us, with multiple afternoon rain showers and hailstorms.

I uploaded some of my favorite photos from this trip. I will go over the route we took to help anyone interested in backpacking in the Maroon Bells-Snowmass region.

I also created a full-length YouTube film if anyone is interested in watching what it was like:

-Four Pass Loop Video

Day 1:

We woke up early in Denver and drove to the Maroon Bells Welcome Center. This is where we parked our car and took a shuttle to the trailhead. Most people do this hike counter-clockwise but we decided to do it clockwise. We hiked in only 5 miles that day and camped about 1.5 miles away from West Maroon Pass.

Day 2:

On day 2, we had to climb over two passes: West Maroon and Frigid Air Pass. We hit these passes earlier in the day and the weather cooperated with us until we got close to our 2nd campsite about 7-8 miles in. We set up camp on this hill that overlooked a waterfall.

Day 3:

Day 3 was when we had to hike over Trail Rider Pass. Everyone that we met along the way warned us about how hard it was. It was hard but honestly not as bad as everyone was saying. The trail was a pretty consistent grade up with stunning views. We did get hit with a storm during our ascent but it stopped in time for us to get gorgeous views of Snowmass Lake. We hiked around 8 miles that day and camped as far up as we could to make the last day a bit easier.

Day 4:

This was the final day of our backpacking trip in the Four Pass Loop and in my opinion, Buckskin Pass offers the best views out of all of the passes. This day was around 7 miles but a lot of it was downhill. Seeing Snowmass Lake from the top of the 4th pass was surreal as we realized how far we had come.

If we did this again, I'd like to try it clockwise while adding in more miles to see more of the region.

Thank you for reading & let me know if you have any questions!

It was a gorgeous morning as the clouds parted just long enough to illuminate the magnificent peaks.