Aspen Alley

Destination: Aspen Alley, West Magnolia Recreation area

Date: 5/13/2017, our Mother’s Day weekend hike

Time of Day: 10 am start. Herd of turtles again

Distance/Elevation/Difficulty: 2.6 miles/462 feet/Easy

Time Elapsed: 90 minutes.

Comments: This area is known for encampments of homeless people. The summer weather is moderate and significant numbers of homeless people set up summer camps in this area. We didn’t see any camps on this hike.

We didn’t do the hike as listed on AllTrails. The route followed is shown below. The All Trails route includes the 342 loop around the clear cut area and 925. Coming back down 925B resulted in some slightly steeper and rockier terrain. We also ended up below the parking area and had to hike back up.

This area has some areas that were clear cut 3-5 years ago. This takes away from the scenic aspects of the hike while opening up some mountain vistas.

Would we return? This would be a beautiful hike in the fall after the aspens change color. There were some very nice aspen stands along the hike. There is a large number of trails in this area and overall this was an easy hike for when we want to get outdoors but not over exert ourselves.

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