The Conundrum Creek Trailhead leading to an all-natural hot spring 8.5 miles back in the Aspen Wilderness was the venture that changed my life. But, I didn't know that when I started the 6.5 hour journey to our campsite. It was my first backpacking experience, which I chose because of the trail's seclusion and the natural hot spring at its endpoint. I thought it would be fun!
The trail began in a large meadow nestled between two mountains. The sun hadn't yet rose above the mountains when we began our hike at 6:00am, but the sky was lit with light. We walked until we reached a small forest of aspen trees. There was white as far as you could see, which was simply beautiful. As we entered the second meadow, we watched as the sun slowly crept down the mountain until it reached us on the ground.
We followed a creek the entire trip and crossed it via skinny wooden bridges or tree trunks a total of six times. The sound of rushing water was constant background music for us. Around mile 3, and right after our first bridge crossing, we encountered a guest- a moose. He was directly on the trail in front of us, about 30 yards away, starring right in our direction. Luckily, two other hikers came up behind us on the trail, and we were all able to slowly walk in his direction until he mosied off the trail.
We both agreed mile 4.25 to mile 8.5 was the 'no-fun' section. About 80% of the time we were climbing straight up a mountain, and with 30-40lbs of gear on your back this was not an easy feat. We came across a talus field (which is the only time during the hike we got lost- only for a couple minutes though), a pond named 'Silver Ponds' and many, many breather breaks. We were at an elevation of 12,000 feet, and at this elevation you are using 50% less oxygen. It was hard to take a couple steps up without having to take a 2 minute break. Needless to say, the last two miles took 2 hours. But after many rough hours and 8.5 miles of trekking, we finally reached our destination!
The view was something I had never seen before, and I instantly feel in love. Nothing but trees, the creek, and the heavenly blue sky as far as you could see. Our campsite was covered in red and yellow wildflowers, and the natural hot spring was on a ledge overlooking the valley. We ventured above our campsite and found snow on the side of a smaller mountain that we were able to walk to, and more white and purple wildflowers.
There only happen to be about 8 other people in the wilderness with us that night, which is surprising because the hot spring usually entertains 50 or more people on any given night. We were able to have the hot spring to ourselves for a while, and as the day turned to night the wilderness got quite with only the sound of the creek for company.
We woke at 2am to catch a glimpse of the evening sky. It was a clear night exposed clutters of stars in the sky, which was quite a way to wrap up the spectacular day. I had never seen a sky so full of stars.
Since we both got injured on our way to the springs (his knee, my achilles) and because the elevation was kicking our butts, we decided to cut our backpacking trip down to one night. It had rained overnight but now that the sun was shining, we pack our gear and headed out. About 30 people passed us on our way back to the trailhead, so we knew we missed the party, which was fine by us. We had enjoyed the solitude at the hot spring.
A surprise thunderstorm rolled in about an hour and a half into our hike. We stopped off to prepare our raingear and continued to trek through the mud until all of the sudden, and after only 30 minutes of light rain, it was sunny with blue skies again. It had shocked us how quickly the mountain weather could change from a warm, clear day to a chilly rain storm.
At the end of the hike I looked back and saw were we had come from and all we have seen. I was so thankful to have experienced it all- the struggles, the pain, the beauty, and most of all, the adventure. It was truly a life changing event that has shaped my wanderlust.
