Higher Ground
Brooke Casillas
Hiking the Smuggler Trail
Aspen’s Grand Promenade
Hiking the Smuggler Trail offers the most social workout in town. It’s also the most storied.
In 1893, a horse-drawn freight wagon paraded through the streets of Aspen bearing a silver nugget from Smuggler Mountain. The largest ever found, it weighed 2,200 pounds and was 90 percent pure silver. It was broken into three pieces just to get it out of the tunnels of the Smuggler Mine.
The rumble of that wagon is a mere echo where today the footfalls of hikers and the tire treads of mountain bikers mark one of the most popular trails in town. Thousands of people march up and down the Smuggler Road each year in a pilgrimage for health, fitness and contact with nature.
If not for key land acquisitions over a span of 35 years, Aspen’s “Grand Promenade” might have been lost. Now safeguarded as a public thoroughfare, Smuggler is a venue for civic engagement where a cross-section of the community exchanges greetings and dogs of every breed and description exchange meaningful sniffs.
“It’s a social event,” remarks Barbara Conviser on a hike with friend Wendy Barker and a dog named Smokey. “I’ve been hiking Smuggler for 30 years. It’s a great hike because you get lots of exercise, it’s close to town and you’re done in an hour.”
“It’s a good, quick workout,” pants Diane Goldberg, gazing over a mountain vista spanning from New York Creek to the Flat Tops. “It’s very social, and it’s great to share it with everybody—and just look at the views. It’s beautiful! Magnificent! Gorgeous! I’d like to thank everybody who has worked to keep this road open.”
Hiking Smuggler Mountain on a beautiful summer day makes it easy to conjure superlatives. The road traverses up the mountainside through the Upper Sonoran life zone, where burr oak, serviceberry and chokecherry bloom in the spring and bear fruit in the fall. Sagebrush is pungent in the hot afternoon sun, and a sprinkling of wildflowers bloom among glacial boulders on cool summer mornings. Smuggler is a bookend mountain on Aspen’s East End. The higher you go, the better the views, as the valley is framed before a backdrop of ragged peaks and plunging valleys, with town only a stone’s throw away.
As a man greets me with a big smile while jogging down the trail on a summer morning, Smuggler seems like a therapeutic fountain of youth. Everyone I meet on the road seems happy, their conversations competing with the drone of the city. In a town fixated on vertical gain, Smuggler isn’t the biggest hill, but it’s the most pleasant for a walk with friends—you can enjoy a workout while still having enough breath to converse without stopping.
Smuggler has long provided prime pedestrian access to public lands in Hunter Creek, the hanging valley that serves as Aspen’s backyard. Few trail users are aware, however, that urban development once severely threatened Smuggler and Hunter Creek. In the 1960s, large tracts of land were under development pressure by the McCullough Oil Company. When a condominium village was proposed in Hunter Creek, the Forest Service was prompted to preserve the valley floor. Considerable private holdings remained on Smuggler, however, most of them based on mining claims from the 1880s.
The mining days of Smuggler are long past, but the signs are still evident, from the Smuggler Mine at the base of the mountain to the tailings scattered across the mountainside. Named as a Superfund site in the 1980s, tons of toxic tailings were contained before they could become airborne pollutants. Aspen’s first hydroelectric plant, from 1885, was fed by a pipeline that ran straight down the face of Smuggler Mountain and once caused a washout that remains a visible scar.
 | The Smuggler Mine remains today as a stronghold of latter-day Aspen miners, ever since Aspen native Stefan Albouy and a group of friends purchased the Smuggler Mine in 1994 from a granddaughter of early Aspen mining financier David Hyman. They reopened tunnels, restored buildings and gave tours of the mine until Albouy died by his own hand at the Smuggler Mine that same year. |
Local conservation efforts began on Smuggler in 1974, when Bauhaus architect Herbert Bayer became the first private donor, granting 10 acres at the top of the mountain to Pitkin County. Over the next three decades, Pitkin County, the City of Aspen and Aspen Valley Land Trust continued working to stave off development.
The greatest threat came when Wilk Wilkinson purchased McCullough Oil interests on Smuggler in the late 1980s, precipitating a 20-year negotiation that eventually turned hostile. In 1998, frustrated by strident opposition to his development plans, Wilkinson tried to close Smuggler Road. A lawsuit with Pitkin County was eventually settled in the county’s favor, granting public access to the top of the mountain and on to Warren Lakes.
In 2005, the city and county jointly paid Wilkinson $15 million ($7.5 million each) from open space funds to protect the 170-acre core of Smuggler Mountain in what remains the largest purchase ever made by local government for open space. In 2006, the City of Aspen bought 24 additional acres from Wilkinson’s wife, Tulasi, for $3.4 million, and in 2007 the city and county paid $500,000 more to the Wilkinson estate for mineral rights.
While Smuggler Mountain would not be the cherished open space it is today without the generosity of private land contributors Herbert Bayer, Fritz and Fabi Benedict, Harley Baldwin and Raymond and Camilla Auger, the vast majority of open space on Smuggler is a credit to the taxpaying citizens of Aspen and Pitkin County, who funded the largest acquisitions.
From the small, wooden sundeck at the top of Smuggler, Aspen is laid out below in Lilliputian scale, dwarfed by the mountain peaks surrounding it, which together form a remarkable horizon.
Mark Ilich walks up to the deck, and we take in the sights together. The overview of town inspires perspective, so we have an impromptu discussion about Aspen—past, present and future. As for Mark’s views on Smuggler: “It’s quick, a great workout, you don’t have to drive anywhere, it’s usually sunny and there’s little traffic. ... I can walk right from where I live. The dogs are friendly; I’ve never met a mean one. I’ve walked it for years, and, though it’s busier, it’s never changed.”
It has been over a century since that huge silver nugget was carved out of Smuggler Mountain. Today, the mountain’s riches are in the smiles of hikers, the wagging tails of their dogs and the pedestrian pleasure of a very special promenade. -- Paul Andersen
More Vertical
Smuggler may be Aspen hiking’s grande dame, but our other in-town hikes make for great workouts, too.
I know a woman who will hike up Smuggler in hardly-there shorts, her long blonde braids swaying back and forth as she keeps up the pace. She monitors calories burned on a digital counter she wears strapped to her arm; her face is hidden behind oversized sunglasses and a special hat with flaps attached to the side to protect her milk-white skin from the sun. Her perky breasts seem to point in the direction she wants to go: up, up and away.
Aspen’s hiking scene is unique for many reasons, but mostly because it really is just that—a scene. Let’s face it: There aren’t many places in the world with such glorious hikes within walking distance to town where the people watching is as good as the wildlife viewing. It’s not uncommon to see coiffed workout babes with their designer sunglasses and undersized miniature dogs overusing their cell phones. Or to be passed by hardcore dudes charging up the mountain in wraparound shades and the newest Patagucci shell, plugged into their iPods and heart rate monitors, having some demented competition with the clock, themselves, or both. There are people who hike with ski poles and backpacks weighted with sand, people who have no qualms about taking a business call in the middle of the trail as if it were just another day at the office. There are dogs, babies, families, couples and even the occasional leashed cat.
But what you won’t see is anyone complaining about the great hikes that can be conquered within walking distance from downtown Aspen, the epic views and access to wilderness that feels like it’s remote, even though it’s just outside the back door. Paul’s given you his erudite take on Smuggler. Here’s mine on Aspen’s other in-town hikes.
The Hunter Creek Loop
Not too difficult but challenging enough to get the blood pumping, this local favorite is perfect for sweating out a hangover or for women toting their newborns in those crazy baby backpack things. It’s also a great hike to socialize, as all the women chatting on their phones or to each other will attest. Start on the Smuggler side and discover the prime tanning spot in town, with a nice temperature inversion that warms up the chillier days in late spring and early fall (thus the scantily clad hard bodies that can be found there, but hey, if you got it, flaunt it). On hotter days, the steeper Hunter Creek approach is a worthy trade off for the shade and cool stream crossing it provides. You can hike it, run it or bike it, and the complete loop is enough to call it a good workout. It’s also a popular spot for the pooches, which often outnumber their two-legged folk.
The Ute Trail
“I could do that with mom strapped to my back,” my brother said as we approached the lookout point at the top of the Ute Trail.
“Are you serious?” I replied, hands on my knees as I bent over, trying to catch my breath. “My heart feels like a frog trapped in a tin box right now.”
“No, dude. That almost killed me,” he said, reaching for his water bottle.
The town’s outdoor Stairmaster, the Ute Trail makes you sweat in a way that you’re positive you’re burning tons of calories. It’s short and difficult, and you can do it during your lunch break. While the view of Independence Pass and downtown Aspen from the lookout rock is quite nice, the bottom line is, you’re doing this for the burn. Even though it takes most folks around a half hour, the incessant switchbacks are grueling and deceiving—no matter how many times you do this hike, it’s always a little longer than you thought.
Aspen Mountain, aka “Ajax”
“Sorry I’m late. I ran up Ajax this morning,” a girl at the coffee shop says to her friend, all casual-like, as if running up Ajax was a walk in the park.
Long and steep, with very little in the way of traversing or flats, Ajax is a serious grind no matter how you slice it: going straight up the middle of Spar or trying to sneak around the side (via the Ute Trail or Summer Road). It’s long (around five miles one way) and steep (you’re clearing over 3,000 vertical feet) and the pitch is consistent (there are places where walking becomes difficult, never mind running). While it’s hard to escape evidence that you’re within the boundaries of a ski resort with all the lift towers and service roads and maintenance equipment, it sure is nice to reward yourself for your efforts at the top. Hit the Sundeck for a beer and a burger, and a little live bluegrass (every Sunday throughout the summer months). Your knees will certainly thank you when it’s time to take the gondola back down, and the views (from the gondola especially) are pretty good, too. -- Alison Berkley
