The West Maroon Trail offers a long hike from Aspen to Crested Butte, through designated wilderness between. Hikers can go any distance out and back, or take the full trail one-way with a shuttle. Sights include the photo-famous peaks of the Maroon Bells, plus an expanse of alpine tundra way above the treeline. That’s not to mention flowery meadows and rushing streams at nearly every turn! The full journey could take all day, or multiple days as a backpacking trip.

This pair of San Juan alpine lakes is guaranteed to take your breath away! Starting on easy trail through the forest, you’ll soon meet steeper terrain among crazy-tall wildflowers. You’ll cross a creek flowing over bone-white rocks, and finally surmount a huge bluff before arriving at the Ice Lake basin. From there you can choose your own adventure: to see only Ice Lake, go farther to Island Lake, or farther still to add Fuller Lake. The possibilities are endless!

Sand dunes in the Rocky Mountains? Yes! And not only that, Colorado is home to the tallest dunes in North America, within a dunefield spanning 30 square miles. It’s a long, hot, and solitary hike to reach the very tallest one, called Star Dune. A much more manageable hike can reach a close contender, however, called High Dune. Still, to get there you must wade across a creek then slog through an expanse of sand, choosing your own route to the summit of the dune.

Kite Lake is the start point for the Decalibron––a loop hike to three or four 14ers in a single day! And with only about 3,400 feet of elevation in 7 miles, it’s easier than attempts on many single 14ers. This is a linkup few peakbaggers can resist, so the only thing keeping it from being swarmed with people is its distance from the Front Range. If it were in a place like Rocky Mountain National Park this hike would be a total traffic jam, but as it is, you might even get a summit to yourself!

Longs Peak is a true Colorado icon––one of the state’s proudest 14ers, and the only one in Rocky Mountain National Park. Though Longs looks imposing from all sides, the “Keyhole” notch allows passage to the summit. The route requires hiking 5 miles on a maintained trail, then scrambling a few more over talus and boulders––on steep terrain with exposed drop-offs––to finally reach the coveted summit. This climb is not for the inexperienced, but makes a worthy goal for anyone's Colorado bucketlist.