Sept 22; It's a nice day, and I follow recommendations to visit Maroon Bells & Maroon Lake, a popular destination.

The road to the park is closed to cars, but you can purchase bus tickets between 9a-5p to get here (a short day during a season when there is daylight until 7:30p). The phrase "crowd-hiking" comes to mind -- and it's as busy as any park I've ever visited.

Although the scenery is picturesque, this park has a 'city park' feel -- with visitors blasting boom-boxes, smoking cigarettes, and walking dogs. As I push through the massive crowds of crying kids, families, tourists and locals, I have to honestly say this park has got a bit of a 'trashy' ghetto vibe compared to the idyllic serenity of the national park I just left, and the quality of the people here is different from the friendly hikers from yesterday.

This park attracts everyone. It's the perfect season to see aspen trees change color, and many 'leaf-peepers' arrive on the bus with full-sized tripods, giant zoom lenses and bags of camera equipment. Everyone gets off the bus, sets up their tripods and takes the exact same picture of Maroon Lake (including me -- it's the opening picture of this vacation; but I'm a small-format point-and-shoot camera guy so I can snap a quick picture and keep moving. It's amazing to see people setting up for hours to take one photo.).

Make no mistake -- it's a beautiful view -- but the crowds here can make even the most scenic landscape seem tedious. I head up one of the trails towards Crater Lake to gain some elevation and hopefully get away from the worst of the crowds.

After about 2 hours of hiking upwards, the crowds finally thin out to a comfortable level. There are still lots of other people here -- but now we have a little space between us (no longer single-file nose-to-butt hiking), and the trails are nicer at these higher elevations. The trails here are mostly unmarked but relatively easy to follow -- and I keep a close eye on the clock so I don't miss the last bus out.