Grottos Trail — Attraction in Four Corners States

This is a great hike. I loved coming here when it was so hot down in the Front Range so all the way up near Aspen the temperature was near perfect. And with gas prices so high it's like a pretend road trip. Unfortunately the Ice Caves were a little sketchy so we opted out. There was a big burly guy coming out and he was like I've done all the 14ers and that is pretty hairy in there! He said it's too difficult because you can't get a good grip on the ice. I guess he should have brought some ice climbing gear haha. I kid because I definitely wasn't prepared either. But it looked like a fun challenge for people more experienced than us. We did have fun climbing up to the Cascades though. The trail goes over a little bit of rock face that you have to climb but I would call it beginning level climbing for sure. However if you have disabilities you might not be able to get back there. My daughter thought the trail ended but I spied a little sign on a post continuing on so that's how I knew. Thankfully we found our way because the Cascades are so beautiful and so relaxing. I felt like I could sit there all day just listening to the sounds of the water rushing. And there were very few people it felt like we had the area to ourselves for a long time. I would recommend this hike to anyone who likes hiking and if you are really experienced you might want to go down into the ice caves and give yourself more of...

Interesting, easy hike—must do if vacationing in the Aspen area! We loved our visit to the Grotto’s area as a perfect stop along the way up to Independence Pass. We arrived in the parking lot at about 9am; by the time we left at 10:30am, the lot was full (TIP: plan to visit early!). The entry includes bathrooms and an information sign. You’ll find a short amount of hiking, some rock scrambling, a unique cave system, and a beautiful cascade of falling water. You can just walk the easy trail areas, and you also have access to scrambling/climbing if you want to go down into the cave and/or reach the edges of some of the falls (recommend sturdy shoes). This place is great for singles, couples, and families with plenty of photo opportunities. Highly...

This place is awesome!! One of my favorites in Colorado overall. Sweet ice carved caves and an awesome cascading waterfall through grottos that were carved by glaciers. There are sweet climbing spots everywhere. I could spend days here climbing and swimming in the pools in the cascading falls. It's a super short hike from the small parking lot that keeps this spot from getting overrun. Independence Pass is a beautiful drive but this is definitely worth a stop along the way. There is no camping, just a day use area but it does have picnic tables and a vault toilet. I can't say enough how other worldly this place looks, climbing down into the ice cave is a definite must and swimming is...