Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Independence Pass
ยป
Mileage: 27.2 miles
Why Go?
You'll see plenty of old mining ruins and blow-your-mind views. If you don't have time to
drive the entire Top of the Rockies route, this stretch of Hwy 82 from Twin Lakes through
Aspen's back gate will do just fine.
The Route
To call Twin Lakes a town is a bit of a stretch - this former mining camp was fed by steady
stage-coach lines plying the trail between Leadville and Aspen - but it is a worthy destina-
tion in its own right. If you're here late in the season, you'll see camo-clad hunters, last-
gasp family vacationers, Harley men and women and their hogs with bedrolls on the tail-
gate, and decked-out road cyclists with shaved legs and iPhones in their saddlebags.
Drive up a narrow ribbon of road above the tree line. Views are cinematic and spectacu-
lar - swatches of glacier are visible along the ridges of Twin Peaks. Tundra blooms at the
top of the pass, where at 12,095ft you'll be on the edge of the Continental Divide. This,
friends, is your own IMAX film.
As Hwy 82 continues over the pass the views are just as marvelous, and multimillion-
dollar properties begin to dot the landscape as you edge toward Aspen. One of them be-
longs to Kevin Costner.
When to Go
Although the pass is closed in winter time (November to late May), you can still usually
get up to the vast Twin Lakes, where the cross-country skiing, snowshoeing and ice-skating
is magnificent.
Detour
If you have time, there's a terrific trail to the Interlaken, an old abandoned hotel fashion-
able in the 1890s. The trail leaves from the lower of the Twin Lakes.
