Maxwell Falls

Usually, when the term “falls” is used in connection with a high mountain location, you conjure up images of high volumes of water roaring or cascading down tens if not hundreds of feet to pools below. With this image in mind, last weekend we set off for Maxwell Falls, just outside of Aspen Park for our Labor Day adventure.

Although the directions we pulled off the web turned out to be inaccurate, we finally found the trailhead. You would think we’d have realized that if the directions on paved roads led us astray, we were in for trouble if we followed those same directions on the trail.

Well, we followed the trail anyway, and although the first section was relatively well marked and none too technical, the latter part became trailblazing and descending some pretty rough terrain. We survived with only minor scrapes on Regan’s leg. She is very tough!

Because we had to do our own trailblazing, we got turned around and asked someone “which way to the trailhead?” Following their directions, we then hiked several miles before realizing there were apparently two trailheads and we were heading in the wrong direction. Clint commented several times that the river was on the wrong side, but we assumed the person had given us accurate directions.

Although the “falls” ended up being a stream cascading over a few boulders, the kids had fun. Regan is becoming quite the avid hiker and Haden behaves very well in his backpack.