GC7B697 Virtual Cache Virtually Maroon Bells
Type: Virtual | Size: Virtual Virtual | Difficulty: 1 out of 5 | Terrain: 1.5 out of 5
By: vorticity @ | Hide Date: 08/24/2017 | Status: Available
Country: United States | State: Colorado
Coordinates: N39° 05.891 W106° 56.532 | Last updated: 08/30/2019 | Fav points: 0

Even though the smoky haze on this day in September 2017, you can see Maroon Bells, visible across Maroon Lake. Mr. and Mrs. Vort with Bean, are blocking one of the most iconic views in Colorado. One would be hard-pressed to find any book of photos of Colorado that fails to include a photo of "the Bells."


To log this virtual reward cache, find the interpretive sign for "Maroon Lake." The sign is NOT at the listed coordinates. It is NOT at GZ.

Complete this sentence with the three missing words and send them to me: Maroon Lake is stocked and contains __________ __________ __________

A photo would be nice to include in your log, though it is NOT required.

From this angle, it appears that North Maroon Peak is the tallest of the three. It is not. Maroon Peak (in the center), is a true Colorado 14er rising to 14,163 feet.

On July 4th, 2013, I managed to summit this beast in a round-trip dangerous and grueling effort that took me 13 hours.

I could not have accomplished it without the companionship and constant encouragement of friend, fellow climber, and geocacher SPIVEY. Hats off to him.

This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between August 24, 2017 and August 24, 2018. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards on the Geocaching Blog.

Note that access to parking at Maroon Lake is restricted during the summer months. During restricted hours, if you don't arrive before 8:00AM or after 5:00PM, you will have to ride a shuttle bus to the lake. And, the road may be closed after heavy snow, so plan ahead.

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 Hints

The interpretive sign you're looking for is located on the ground between parking and the lake.

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Driving Directions

 Logs

10 Logs: Found it 10  

Found it 07/05/2019 By VirginiaS
Beautiful morning at the lake. Avalanche debris along road is crazy.

Found it 07/03/2019 By fishercacher
Visited here today from Virginia. Despite the signs, there was plenty of parking at the visitors entrance at 7:30am. Had a great time, and the early arrival meant fewer people on the trails.
Thanks for the fun virtual cache!

Found it 06/05/2019 By NH-92
I found this cache during my 2019 US vacation.
I started in Detroit and had major stages in Toronto, Niagara Falls, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Lincoln NE, Denver, SLC, Yellowstone, Black Hills, Minneapolis, Chicago before heading back to Michigan.
Thank You very much and best regards from Bavaria, Germany.

Found it 10/13/2018 By littelchen
Accessburn und I found this one during our vacation in the US. We had two awesome weeks with good weather and great caches. Our journey started in Seattle and ended in Denver and we had stops in Vancouver, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Alamo, Beaver and Aspen.

Thanks to all the owners for the great views, landscapes and caches...

Greetings from Germany,

littelchen

Found it 10/13/2018 By accessburn
Hier waren wir während unseres Urlaubs. Die kleine Dose konnte sich nicht lange vor uns verstecken.
Das Wetter war toll und die Umgebung ist schön anzusehen.

Vielen Dank an mein Littelchen fürs mitcachen und danke an den Owner fürs Pflegen des kleinen Caches.


Grüße aus Frankfurt/Deutschland
Geocaching Frankfurt am Main



We went here during our holiday. The cache could not hide long from us.
Weather was great and the landscape was also nice.

Thanks to littelchen for coming with me and thanks to the owner for hiding and maintaing the cache.

Greetings from Frankfurt/Germany
Toby
Geocaching Frankfurt am Main

Found it 07/10/2018 By team salford
visiting colorado from new hampshire. we stayed in both estes park as well as aspen over a week. i was able to find 20+ virtuals and earthcaches in addition to 80 regular caches. answers or pics will be sent along the way by week's end. TFTC's.

Found it 06/22/2018 By Postpile
Spent the day in the Aspen area, hiking and hanging with friends. We were able to get to the parking lot without taking the shuttle. This is a beautiful place. Several years ago we did a backpacking loop trip through here. Thanks for creating the new virtual cache.

Found it 06/08/2018 By RagtopDriver
Took a chance on Maroon Lake being a place to go as a stop on our way out of town. Glad we did. Great scenery and short hikes. Didn't do any trout fishing - to much pressure from the rest of the gang to catch one. BlackEye.

Found it 06/03/2018 By Nîq
Had trouble locating the right sign. I think the correct one might be down. Will send the answer I find, hoping it’s right. Such a beautiful area! Took a long hike up to Crater Lake.

Found it 05/29/2018 By nelsonfam04
Grabbed your cache while in the area, will send answers shortly