Maroon Bells Guide

Two symmetrical, maroon-streaked fourteeners — Maroon Peak (14,163 ft) and North Maroon Peak (14,019) — rise in perfect balance above the still water of Maroon Lake outside Aspen, and when they mirror in the lake at dawn they make what is genuinely the most photographed scene in Colorado. The bowl is ringed with aspen groves that turn molten gold in late September, and easy trails run from the lakeshore up toward Crater Lake and beyond into some of the best backpacking in the state. The peaks themselves are deadly to climb — loose, rotten rock earned them the nickname “the Deadly Bells” — but the view from the bottom asks nothing but that you get there early.