Conundrom Hot Springs: Aspen, CO

This past weekend Dave and I got the chance to get away from the city and heading for a little mountain air. We have been wanting to do a little backpacking before the end of the summer and the weather forecast looked good (no rain), so we went for it. We drove 3.5 hours to Aspen early Saturday morning with a hike to Conundrom Hot Springs in our sights. We have been waiting to do this hike because of all the hipe about naked hippies in the natural hot springs... no just kidding, but the hike was appealing with a great reward to soak in the hot springs.

We stopped in Glenwood Springs on our way to Aspen and to our surprise there was a Kawana's Pancake breakfast!!! We were able to fill up our bellies for the long hike ahead and it was the most delicious pancake breakfast I have ever been to!!

We arrived at the trail head in Aspen and started hiking around 10am. The hike is approximately 8.5 to 9 miles and it took us 5 hours to make it up. We were each carrying a backpack full of our camping gear, so our shoulders and hips were getting pretty sore as we neared our final destination. Dave did a great job encouraging me to push through the pain and make it to camp. The trail you follow on this hike winds with the Conundrom Creek and there was one river crossing without a bridge. The bridge had been washed out and not replaced by the Forrest Service yet. We had to go through calf deep freezing cold water but we survived the trips across.

To have a fire up there, you had to camp at least 1/4 of a mile from the springs (which was fine with us) because camping is not camping unless you have a fire.

Up at the hot springs, we were greeted with an open valley with the springs flowing down the side of the mountain. There was one large pool (about the size of a small rectangular pool) and 3 smaller pools (hot tub size or less). The springs are supposedly over 100 degrees. The springs we much smaller than we anticipated but it was still great to soak in. The views from the hot springs were amazing. Massive mountains surrounded the area and it was great to just relax and take in the fresh air. Also, the springs did not smell funny at all...I thought they would be sulfury, but to our luck, nothing.

Well, that was our weekend in Aspen.

***I will post pictures when we get our computer fixed.

Another happening:
I ran a half-marathon on August 8th, then Dave and I played in an Ultimate Frisbee tournament. My race went great and the tourney was fun, but I was very worn out! My full marathon in on September 20th in Boulder, so come cheer me on if you are in the area!!


Also, we are headed to Lake Tahoe, CA, this week! Dave's Grandparents own a cabin there, so Dave had a week off of school so we're drivin' to Tahoe!!! I am very excited!