Fancy Pass, or as we call it Fancy Pants Red Cliff, CO

View from Independence Pass

Paintbrush flowers with mountain in the back

Approaching Fancy Lake

Get Ready

First look at lake is at eye level

Hike above Fancy Lake the water is coming right down the trail

A look down at Fancy Lake 

Hike up snowfield is steep!

Up at the Pass we see a play land

Friendly Marmott

Treasure Vault lake in the back

Hike down is steep Too!

A few of Missouri Lakes

Missouri Lakes with storm coming

Fly fisher at the lake

Kathi leads the way up the snowfield doing the hard work of digging foot steps into the snow. 

We left Snowmass at 5:09 am which made for smooth sailing through Aspen and up the twisty windy road over Independence Pass.  We drove past a large buck on the shoulder with a big rack standing in the shadow of the ditch looking like a mail box.  Well at this hour of the day he did look like a mailbox.  Highway 82 from Aspen to the Pass is a road that is at times one lane carved out of the mountain, serpentined against the mountain and has little or nothing of a guard rail.  At times they have created a small pull out for the car on the outside lane to pull into, to allow an oncoming inside lane car to pass.  The spacing of the pull out seems about right if both cars are the size if a Cooper!  Since we were on the road so early the first two cars we meet are way up towards the top of the pass and of all things are collectors cars.  One from the Bonnie and Clyde vintage and the other an early 50's station wagon.  Must be some sort of collector car show down in Aspen for the weekend.  At the top of the pass we were treated with silhouetted view of 6 elk standing on top of the grassy pass.

The Fancy Pass trail we are heading to today is halfway between Aspen and Breckenridge, in a twisted mountain roads sort of way. The drive takes three hours, certainly not that far on a map, but the mountains do present a few objects to drive around. The drive back into Fancy Pass is 8.5 miles of a pretty wide gravel road.  There must be several 4 wheeler roads and trails back here as there were many trucks/trailers with their 4 wheelers on it.  After the 8.5 miles of the good gravel road we get to do 3 miles of a less than wonderful gravel road.  Kinda skinny and switchbacky, we would not want to meet anyone coming the other way.  We make it to the trailhead without any troubles.  It took us 2 hours and forty five minutes of driving to get from Snowmass to the Fancy Pass trailhead.

We make a quick change into our hiking shoes, grab our packs and hit the trail. There is a forty percent chance of rain today, so for sure it is going to rain, only question is when.  We are doing a loop trail today and from what we have read we should hike over Fancy Pass first and then loop over to Missouri Pass.

The Fancy Pass half of the loop is 4.4 miles long and gains 2,380 feet in elevation.  The trail follows along the the Fancy Creek drainage bottom through lodge pole pines and spruce trees.  The trail does continue to climb the whole way to Fancy Lake.  You gain 1,000 feet just getting to the lake. The lake is a real beauty tucked in against the head of the wall and a nice water stream flowing out of the front end of it.  This is one of those cool times when you are walking up the trail and bam, suddenly the lake is in front of you at eye level!  It is several steps before the lake is at boot level.


At the lake, the trail turns right and climbs a steep gully on the hillside running along the north side of the lake. We had to dig out the map to determine which way the trail went as there are social trails all over the place here.  At the top of the gully we arrived at a junction with a trail leading to Holy Cross City. The trail to Holy Cross City heads to an old mining ruin site, which from the pictures I have seen, the ruins are still standing and you can go inside them. Our trail turns left, following an old road grade that is pretty steep as it ascends a rocky ravine to Fancy Pass, gaining 825-ft. in 0.7 miles. Our trip today involved wearing ice stabilizers and kick stepping our way up 400 vertical feet of snow.  That is 50 kick steps into the snow, stop catch breath, kick in a new 50. 

From the pass, views to the southwest are of all of the head of the Cross Creek valley, meadows and lakes surrounded by granite peaks. The large lake in the distance is Blodgett Lake, while the nearby lake, just below Missouri Pass, is Treasure Vault Lake.

The trail down to Treasure Vault Lake was very obscure and difficult to find. The hike out is long, but we make it out without any further wipeouts.  I am guessing most people just meander down to the lake and don't worry about the trail.  This is like a huge playground. So much to look at.  We could see the lake and we could see people standing on top of the Missouri Pass so we we're pretty confident we knew where we needed to end up. We head down to Treasure Vault Lake, an azure blue gem nestled in pretty meadows at the head of the basin. Just beautiful.  But clouds are gathering and we must press on.


Now the second half of our hike the trail, bears left toward Missouri Pass. Past Treasure Vault Lake the path starts a short, steep climb to Missouri Pass (11,986-ft.), and then it is just a quick 4.0 miles to the end of the trail.

Missouri Pass enjoys expansive views of the upper Cross Creek valley and the beautiful Missouri Lakes basin to the southeast. The basin, covered in rocky knobs and emerald green meadows, lies just below the timberline in a cirque of granite ridges and peaks.


After taking in the views from the pass, we descend from the pass to the basin. The steep trail is at times speckled with snow fields that must be descended.  We punch some great heel steps into the snow and make it safely through them all.  We arrive at the first of the Missouri Lake after losing 440-ft. in 0.4 miles. The second and largest lake is 0.2 miles further. The trail then passes between two smaller lakes before arriving at fifth large lake located 1.0 miles from the pass. Another large lake, reached by a spur trail heading right  just beyond the fifth lake, is situated directly beneath the northeastern flank of Savage Peak, here we see a fly fisherman and stop to see if he can land one, no.

Past the fifth lake the trail follows Missouri Creek, descending on moderate grades through spruce to a large meadow, 2.5 miles from Missouri Pass. Beyond the meadow the grade steepens and the path crosses the creek several times, passing pretty cascades and waterfalls along the way. From the last lake we can hear a person yelling.  We can't quite understand what she is yelling, but you definitely hear panic in the tone of the voice.  We pick up the pace and move closer to the sound.  As we are moving downhill the storm clouds are gathering, thunder rumbling and people backpacking up the trail are in whatever hurry they can muster under the weight of their packs to get uphill and set up a tent before the clouds bust open.  We met up with six young adults who asked if we have seen two fifteen year old boys, one with an orange t shirt and one with a white shirt. They are separated from their mom and the mom can't find them.  The six young people are interviewing anyone they pass to find out if there has been a sighting of the two boys.  The mom is way off trail down below us searching all over by the creek while hanging onto her small poodle and yelling/screaming the boys names.  I pull out my GPS and mark the waypoint of where the Mom thinks the boys went off trail. When the mom comes up through the rushing creek, a lady backpacker who has been interviewed by the six young adults said she saw the two boys heading down the trail. The mom is in near hysteria. She the thanks everyone and heads down the trail in the hopes of catching up with the boys. 

The clouds burst open and pour a cold hard rain mixed with hail for a half an hour.  The creek is rushing full and my thoughts are in this chilly place of imagining if anyone might have stepped into that rushing creek, would they be able to survive the experience.  We are hiking down fast, but the creek is rushing faster and is noticeably higher and fuller.  There is a lot of rain water that has been added to the mix.  All I can think about is those two, 15 year old boys and please Lord, let them be at the car and not in that water because they would be goners.

The final creek crossing is at the mouth of a small, box or slot canyon. We took a few photos here.  The water has to squeeze through this slot canyon.  As you can imagine the water was really loud and fast.  This whole section would be fascinating to look at closely, but not in the steadily falling rain...

The final leg of the trail passes a diversion dam and water pipes that are part of the Homestake Water project. The project, built in the 1960’s, transfers water to the Cities of Aurora and Colorado Springs. There is a lot of this going on in Colorado, taking water from some mountainous area and piping it to a large city.

As we were tromping out the last few paces of this hike we pass a hastily set up tent right off of the main trial.  Out pops a man's head and he immediately inquires if we have seen the two boys, one wearing orange and one wearing white?  This guy is staying out of the rain, but is serving as chief information operator for mission "find lost boys".  We tell him what we know and he tells us what he knows.

Total for Today is 9.4
Total miles 88.3

Box or Slot Canyon