Independence Pass, 12,095'
The Road In

Independence Pass crosses the Sawatch Mountains between Twin Lakes and Aspen. The eastern side has 3 big switchbacks but the road is good, 2 lane, paved. The western side, the descent into Aspen, has a couple of stretches of one lane dirt. Portions of the road are a bit tight for most of the RV's travelling through. And meeting one of these in a one lane section is exciting.

At the top of the pass is an overview area with lots of parking. With the views up there, the place gets a lot of traffic. The hike around the overview is worth the effort, besides, you'll sleep really good after doing it.

Independence Pass is directly on the Continental Divide and if you take a look around at the summit, you'll see Mount Champion, Mount Oklahoma, French Mountain, Casco Peak, La Plata Peak, Star Mountain, Ouray Peak, Grizzly Peak, Independence Mountain, and Green Mountain. Mt. Elbert and Mt. Massive are very close but are hidden by other peaks in between. The road itself travels between the Collegiate Peaks and Hunter-Fryingpan Wildernesses.

The Top of the Rockies Scenic Byway ends just west of the town of Twin Lakes. The land varies back and forth between public and private ownership so be careful of where you try to pull over and get out. For instance, when I took these photos of Lake Creek, I was on public land but the whole time there was a fellow standing in his 2nd story window watching me from across the creek.

The Mt. Elbert Lodge is back in here a couple miles and there are several good National Forest campgrounds along the way (of course, it's the end of September and most of them are closed already). I stopped quite a few times to get these photos. At one stop I helped a couple guys with getting an ATV out of the back of their pickup. At another a car pulled up with two people standing up through the sunroof. They wanted to know if I could name the mountains they were looking at. It was a beautiful Saturday in late September and there was an Oktoberfest thing going on in Aspen: the traffic was pretty heavy.

Anyway, it's maybe 6 or 7 miles from the end of Twin Lakes to the bottom of the climb up to Independence Pass. It took me nearly an hour because I stopped for every view I thought I could get a good photo of. I was enjoying myself and in no hurry to get anywhere. And the colors...