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Earth satellite image of route
Rating: 4/10 The Lead King Basin trail is a loop off of the Schofield Pass road that heads off to the north and goes around Sheep Mountain. It skirts the beautiful Maroon Bells-Snowmass Wilderness boundary for the majority of its 8 miles. There are some nice, secluded camping spots in the basin itself and an impressive view of Snowmass Mountain and Hagerman Peak as they tower above. The trail starts at a fork a little before Lizard Lake, 1.5 miles east of Marble, then connects back a mile northeast of Crystal. The last mile on the Crystal side from the basin is the rockiest and most difficult section with a fairly narrow section of shelf road that parallels the North Fork of Crystal River below, but easily negotiable in a stock vehicle. This is one of my favorite trails due to the fact it's in my second favorite region of the state—the Elk Mountains. Awesome stuff. Included below are pictures from two main trips, one in summer and the other in fall. The summer trip, where my pictures commence, are traveling east to west, and the fall trip go from east to west (Marble to Crystal). |
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