Days 71 & 72 (July 24 & 25). Aspen

From: Glenwood Springs, CO

To: Aspen, CO

Miles today: 40, 0

Total miles: 14790

Route CO 82 runs from Glenwood Springs, at I-70, up into the mountains (following rivers where possible) to the town of Aspen and then beyond. The road was great until I got close to the Aspen airport, when things slowed way down.  (I picked Aspen as a place to meet Karen because it had an airport.)  But I got there, and met Karen who had arrived about an hour before. Good times. 

Never having been there, I thought Aspen would be a lot like Jasper or Banff in the Canadian Rockies: a ski town that did some tourist business in the summer as well.  No, no, no.  Aspen, according to a 2011 Wall Street Journal article (referenced by Wikipedia), is “The Most Expensive Town in America.” That claim is based on property values, but apparently Aspen is not just home to famous musicians and artists, but also corporate executives.  The blocks of shops rivaled anything in the swanky parts of New York.  The restaurant Karen & I had dinner in had a wine list that included several thousand-dollar bottles of wine – and this was just one of many. There was a rock shop selling fossils, many of which had previously been in museums and were selling for tens of thousands of dollars.

Saturday was their “Art on the Avenue” with street vendors, but this was not like the ones back in Alexandria.  Many of these people had their art displayed in galleries, and others came here specifically because they knew that buyers for galleries came here to see what was new.  There were some beautiful pieces you could pick up with that extra $5-10K that had been burning a hole in your pocket.  And, more importantly, people to buy them.  These people looked pretty much like Karen and me, except that a large fraction of the women seemed to be blond.  Karen said 99% were dye jobs, but they were really good dye jobs.

Scenes from Aspen.  Left: a page from a wine list in a pretty typical Aspen restaurant.  Right: "Art on the Avenue" in Aspen, with ski slopes in the background.  The tents were ordinary; the art (and prices) were not.

Karen is always great at finding the one or two best things to do with our time on these encounters, and Saturday was no exception.  We drove a few miles to one of the actual ski lodges (almost a luxury mall with hotels), and from there took a tour bus to one of the easily accessible Rocky Mountain viewing areas, a place called Maroon Lake, which is at the base of two of Colorado’s “fourteeners,” mountains over 14,000 feet in elevation.  Here is the required shot of the Maroon Bells over the lake, and then one with Karen & I against this amazing backdrop.  There were lots of other people there, in part because it was a beautiful day. We had a picnic lunch there.

Anyone can appear to be a great photographer with a scene like this. 

Karen and me at Maroon Lake, near Aspen, Colorado.