When I did this hike in 2015 in raw stormy weather I thought it was spectacular. Turns out it is even better when the sun is shining and the wildflowers are at their peak.
This is the stretch between Cottonwood Pass and Chalk Creek/Tincup road. It’s nearly all between 12 and 13 thousand feet, all above timberline, all on nicely graded trails that let you look up and around.
What’s around in the middle distance are 14ers, about a dozen of them that slide by as you walk through the land of giants. In the far distance are Taylor Park, the Elks and 50 miles further, the West Elks and Rubys. 
And at your feet are flowers – flowers carpeting the ground in all directions, a riot of all the colors, a garden tended by armies of bees, flies, moths and butterflies.
It goes on like this mile after mile, up one tundra swale and down another, over ridges around massive basins.
There were not one but two families of ptarmigans camped out on the trail, letting us approach within feet before edging away and disappearing in the rocks and grasses.
There were fat pikas scampering about, marmots lazing on the rocks under a full sun.
Though strenuous the trail was at no times tedious. It is possibly the finest trail in the world.
Weston Pass fire in the distance
Mountain gentians line the path
A few clouds begin to move in
