Photo "Getting closer to Buckskin Pass"

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Getting closer to Buckskin Pass

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Jim Griffin add to favorites

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scanned slide...This picture is taken on the trail before the final push to Buckskin Pass in the Maroon Bells Wilderness near Aspen Colorado. This was past the peak of wildflowers in the state but some still exist in the higher elevations even in August. There is a history to the nomenclature of the pass.

In 1915 no trail existed over the pass, but backcountry explorers used this crossing to go from Snowmass Lake to Upper Maroon Lake by horseback. Because one horse, a buckskin, refused to take the last steep pitch on the pass, Percy Hagerman named the pass"Buckskin" and decided to recommend that the forest service build a trail over it.

In 1922, Len Shoemaker claimed to name the pass for a buck deer he saw nearby. He later surveyed a route over the pass and in 1923 and 1924 built the trail.

I didn't see any deer on the trail, but as I approached the pass, I did see a mountain goat.(Unfortunately, he was too quick and far away to get a good picture) This picture is not taken so much as to be a great photograph, but to see how the trail goes to get to the pass.(there are several switchbacks) Views from the pass will be following, 

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Fri 8 Sep 2006 23:21

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